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Wirecard
Wirecard AG is an insolvent German payment processor and financial services provider whose former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives have been arrested or otherwise implicated in criminal proceedings. In June 2020, the company announced that €1.9 billion in cash was missing. It owed €3.2 billion in debt. In November 2020, the company was dismantled after it sold the assets of its main business unit to Santander Group for €100 million. Other assets, including its North American, UK and Brazilian units had been previously sold at nondisclosed prices. The company offered electronic payment transaction services and risk management, and issued and processed physical and virtual cards. As of 2017, the company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and was a part of the DAX stock index from September 2018 to August 2020.
The company is at the center of an international financial scandal. Allegations of accounting malpractices had trailed the company since the early days of its incorporation, reaching a peak in 2019 after the Financial Times published a series of investigations along with whistleblower complaints and internal documents. On 25 June 2020, Wirecard filed for insolvency following revelations that an amount of €1.9 billion was "missing". Long-time CEO Markus Braun subsequently resigned and was later arrested. Former COO Jan Marsalek disappeared, after being fired from his position and board seat, and remains a fugitive wanted by the German police. He has been on Europe's Most Wanted list since 2020.
On 25 August 2020, the court-appointed insolvency administrator issued a statement that "under the preliminary insolvency administration, it has since been possible to stabilize the ongoing business and create a basis for its continuation." The statement mentioned how "far-reaching cuts are therefore necessary in order to make any kind of continuation possible" and announced the impending layoff of around 730 employees, in addition to all members of the management board.
In March 2022, Munich public prosecutors charged former CEO, Markus Braun, with fraud, breach of trust and accounting manipulation. If found guilty on all these charges, he could face up to 15 years in prison. Braun was held in the Stadelheim prison as a pre-trial custody until the trial began.
Wirecard was founded in 1999 and took care of the technical processing of credit card payments for online vendors. According to the Spiegel, its clientele initially "consisted primarily of porno and gambling sites". In 2002, when it was close to folding at the end of the dot-com bubble, Markus Braun injected capital and joined as CEO. He consolidated the company and focused the business model on providing internet payment services, initially mainly to porn and gambling websites.
Wirecard became a public stock corporation (listed in the Prime Standard stock market segment) through a reverse IPO, merging with a struggling existing public corporation, InfoGenie AG. Based in Berlin, InfoGenie shares had been listed in the Neuer Markt stock market segment since October 2000 as an information service provider offering telephone advice hotlines on various topics. When the shares became penny stocks following price losses, the stock exchange operator Deutsche Börse wanted to exclude InfoGenie from the Neuer Markt, but this was disallowed by a court in April 2002. In mid-December 2004, InfoGenie decided to merge with the non-listed Wirecard by way of a capital increase against investment in kind, and to change its name to Wire Card. This proceeded on 1 January 2005, and Wire Card became a public corporation. In 2006, Wirecard was included in the TecDAX and in September 2018 in the DAX.
Wirecard Asia Pacific was founded in Singapore in 2007. In 2008, Wirecard introduced virtual prepaid credit cards for online payments and in the following year a fraud prevention suite for fraud detection. In 2014, Wirecard expanded to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Turkey. With the purchase of Prepaid Card Services from Citigroup, Wirecard also began to be represented in the United States in 2016. In the same year, the company acquired a South American Internet payment service provider in Brazil. In 2019, SoftBank invested in Wirecard. With the acquisition of AllScore Payment Services from Beijing, Wirecard also began to be represented in China as of November 2019.
Beginning in April 2015, the Financial Times blog FT Alphaville wrote a series of blog posts that questioned Wirecard's business model and criticised the company's accounting practices.
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Wirecard
Wirecard AG is an insolvent German payment processor and financial services provider whose former CEO, COO, two board members, and other executives have been arrested or otherwise implicated in criminal proceedings. In June 2020, the company announced that €1.9 billion in cash was missing. It owed €3.2 billion in debt. In November 2020, the company was dismantled after it sold the assets of its main business unit to Santander Group for €100 million. Other assets, including its North American, UK and Brazilian units had been previously sold at nondisclosed prices. The company offered electronic payment transaction services and risk management, and issued and processed physical and virtual cards. As of 2017, the company was listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, and was a part of the DAX stock index from September 2018 to August 2020.
The company is at the center of an international financial scandal. Allegations of accounting malpractices had trailed the company since the early days of its incorporation, reaching a peak in 2019 after the Financial Times published a series of investigations along with whistleblower complaints and internal documents. On 25 June 2020, Wirecard filed for insolvency following revelations that an amount of €1.9 billion was "missing". Long-time CEO Markus Braun subsequently resigned and was later arrested. Former COO Jan Marsalek disappeared, after being fired from his position and board seat, and remains a fugitive wanted by the German police. He has been on Europe's Most Wanted list since 2020.
On 25 August 2020, the court-appointed insolvency administrator issued a statement that "under the preliminary insolvency administration, it has since been possible to stabilize the ongoing business and create a basis for its continuation." The statement mentioned how "far-reaching cuts are therefore necessary in order to make any kind of continuation possible" and announced the impending layoff of around 730 employees, in addition to all members of the management board.
In March 2022, Munich public prosecutors charged former CEO, Markus Braun, with fraud, breach of trust and accounting manipulation. If found guilty on all these charges, he could face up to 15 years in prison. Braun was held in the Stadelheim prison as a pre-trial custody until the trial began.
Wirecard was founded in 1999 and took care of the technical processing of credit card payments for online vendors. According to the Spiegel, its clientele initially "consisted primarily of porno and gambling sites". In 2002, when it was close to folding at the end of the dot-com bubble, Markus Braun injected capital and joined as CEO. He consolidated the company and focused the business model on providing internet payment services, initially mainly to porn and gambling websites.
Wirecard became a public stock corporation (listed in the Prime Standard stock market segment) through a reverse IPO, merging with a struggling existing public corporation, InfoGenie AG. Based in Berlin, InfoGenie shares had been listed in the Neuer Markt stock market segment since October 2000 as an information service provider offering telephone advice hotlines on various topics. When the shares became penny stocks following price losses, the stock exchange operator Deutsche Börse wanted to exclude InfoGenie from the Neuer Markt, but this was disallowed by a court in April 2002. In mid-December 2004, InfoGenie decided to merge with the non-listed Wirecard by way of a capital increase against investment in kind, and to change its name to Wire Card. This proceeded on 1 January 2005, and Wire Card became a public corporation. In 2006, Wirecard was included in the TecDAX and in September 2018 in the DAX.
Wirecard Asia Pacific was founded in Singapore in 2007. In 2008, Wirecard introduced virtual prepaid credit cards for online payments and in the following year a fraud prevention suite for fraud detection. In 2014, Wirecard expanded to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Turkey. With the purchase of Prepaid Card Services from Citigroup, Wirecard also began to be represented in the United States in 2016. In the same year, the company acquired a South American Internet payment service provider in Brazil. In 2019, SoftBank invested in Wirecard. With the acquisition of AllScore Payment Services from Beijing, Wirecard also began to be represented in China as of November 2019.
Beginning in April 2015, the Financial Times blog FT Alphaville wrote a series of blog posts that questioned Wirecard's business model and criticised the company's accounting practices.