While all of Europe is still in the grip of the worst pandemic in a century, Germany’s political and financial establishments are also haunted by the Wirecard AG scandal. It is turning out to be the largest case of accounting fraud in the country’s post-war history.
According to its promotion material, Wirecard authorized and processed payments for about 280,000 merchants, issued credit and prepaid cards, and provided technology for contactless smartphone payments. Clients included German discounters Aldi and Lidl as well as nearly one hundred airlines. Since January 2006, the group included a bank with a full German banking license. At its peak, Wirecard had 5,300 employees.
The Wirecard scandal marks the first time that a member of the DAX, the blue-chip index of now forty major German companies trading on the Frankfurt stock exchange, has gone broke.
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