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If you think the German establishment might be feeling red-faced about the implosion of payment processing giant Wirecard, think again.
Olaf Scholz, the German finance minister, spoke to the Frankfurt Financial Summit and wasn’t apologetic, according to Reuters.
“ “I think the supervisory institutions worked very hard and they did their job — this is what we see today.” ”
Longstanding observers of the WDI, -34.93% situation disagree.
Wirecard last week said its auditor, Ernst & Young, couldn’t find €1.9 billion of cash on its balance sheet, and on Monday the company conceded the money probably was never there in the first place.
The stock has dropped 84% since last week’s revelation.
After the Financial Times ran a series of stories alleging Wirecard overstated profit and sales at subsidiaries in October, the financial regulator BaFin implemented a short selling ban that ended up lasting two months.
It also filed a criminal complaint against two Financial Times journalists.
