Wirecard

About Wirecard

Wirecard filed for insolvency on June 25, 2020. The German payment processor had been valued at 24 billion at its peak. Wirecard claimed to have 1.9 billion in cash in Asian escrow accounts that did not exist. CEO Markus Braun was arrested and charged with fraud. The Financial Times had reported on accounting irregularities for years. KPMG conducted a special audit but could not verify the missing cash. EY, the auditor since 2009, faced lawsuits for failing to detect the fraud. Wirecard was the first DAX 30 company to go bankrupt. The collapse exposed weaknesses in German financial oversight. Braun remained in custody. Jan Marsalek, the COO, fled and remains a fugitive, reportedly hiding in Russia. The case was the largest fraud in German postwar history.