- German FinTech’s Unicorn
- Silicon Valley Innovation From The Land Of Automobiles
- Black Turtleneck Wearing Witty CEO
- Death Threats, Thugs & Spies
- Funding Of Militia & Influencing European Elections
- Suave COO Features In Europol’s Most Wanted Fugitives
- Yet Another Financial Fraud
All of the above and much more!
Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard, is a Netflix Documentary that unfolds one of the biggest corporate corruption and financial fraud case of the recent times! Wirecard went bust after its dubious malpractices were discovered and a staggering $1.9 billion was found missing from its books. Skandal! is based on Financial Times’ Dan McCrum’s book ‘Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth’. Dan was the person who unravelled the Wirecard fraud.
Skandal! explains the entire Wirecard drama and its intricacies in a lucid and engaging manner – through a mixture of graphical story telling, rich interviews and brilliant insights. The journalists where followed and spied by Wirecard’s investigators. They were suspended due to smart counter-allegations by Wirecard and a short trader was threatened by thugs. Lots of interesting histrionics!
How did Wirecard execute the scam? Who were responsible? While Skandal! answers such questions about the Wirecard saga, its raises important queries as well:
- How did the Wirecard fraud go unnoticed for so long?
- What loopholes were exploited? Are they fixed?
- Did German politicians and media turn a Nelson’s Eye to Wirecard?
Lots of truth is still not unknown. The former Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek disappeared shortly and is currently wanted by the German police. He is listed on Europol’s list of Europe’s most wanted fugitives. CEO Braun resigned and was arrested on suspicion of false accounting and market manipulation.
Watch it!
A few thoughts do emerge….
As always, it was the Wirecard employees, customers and common investors who had to pay the price!
Wirecard had some of the best and extremely talented technologists and business experts, who brought great ideas to life. Many innovative ideas came to an abrupt end and many employees suffered for no fault of theirs.
Wirecard was a darling of investors. The whole financial world watched how Wirecard surpassed CommerzBank and Deutsche Bank, the traditional Financial heavyweights. There was a move to buy Deutsche Bank as well. All investments turned sour!
And biggest casualty was the image of Germany and Germans – extremely hard working, honest, focussed, passionate and determined champions!
