BaFin bans short sales of Wirecard shares
The share price development of Wirecard AG feels like a roller coaster ride. Within only a few years, the payment service provider… from Aschheim (close to Munich) grew from a little startup to a Finetech corporation making multibillion in revenue. Since 2015 the value of the shares has almost tripled.
When faced with the serious allegations of the British Financial Times, the share price was put under massive pressure within recent weeks. The Financial Times accuses the company of account manipulation and document falsification, allegedly committed at a subsidiary of Wirecard AG in Singapore.
According to another Financial Times report, a law firm has informed the management about fraud cases. These allegations are serious. Wirecard denies the accusations and filed a complaint about market manipulation against unknown. The Munich public prosecutor investigates against unknown because of market manipulation.
For recent events, there are only two explanations: Either the company has actually behaved and tricked, or else the company has – again – become the victim of market manipulation.
The Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht (BaFin) thinks that the company has become the victim of market manipulation and issued a general decree on February 18th, 2019, after which short sales of Wirecard shares were banned.
It’s not for the first time that Wirecard is the subject of serious allegations. In 2008 and 2016, allegations were filed against the company, which were also classified as so-called short-attacks, as short-selling had benefited from corresponding positions. The law enforcement agencies and BaFin also investigated these cases for market manipulation, and the prosecutor issued penal orders at the end of 2018 against authors of an analysis of Wirecard on the Internet, called Zatarra. We are yet not able to assess whether the recurring allegations against Wirecard AG are justified. In this case, the shareholders would have the right to raise claims for damages against Wirecard AG.
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Dr. Wolfgang Schirp, Attorney, Partner, Specialized lawyer for banking and capital market law, Schirp & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB, Leipziger Platz 9, 10117 Berlin, Tel. 030-3276170, mail: schirp@schirp.com
Dr. Susanne Schmidt-Morsbach, Attorney, Partner, Specialized lawyer for banking and capital investment law, commercial and company law, Schirp & Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB, Leipziger Platz 9, 10117 Berlin, Tel. 030-3276170, mail: schmidt-morsbach@ssma.de