WIRECARD: NEW STATUS REPORT FROM THE INSOLVENCY ADMINISTRATOR
The insolvency administrator for the assets of Wirecard AG, attorney Dr. Michael Jaffé, recently published a new status report.
According to the assessment of Jaffé and his team, the so-called TPA business, the third-party business that is so important for Wirecard, never existed. After evaluating the bank’s account statements in Singapore, “it is now finally certain what was already evident from numerous indications,” judged the insolvency administrator, according to the Handelsblatt.
According to Jaffé, this is “direct proof” that Wirecard’s “indirectly accounted assets in the billions were simply fictitious”.
The insolvency administrator thus contradicts media reports that adopted the line of defense of ex-Wirecard CEO Markus Braun; according to this, Braun’s defense had argued that the TPA business had actually existed, but that the earnings had been stolen from the ongoing business. Braun and his defense lawyers hold the fugitive former board member Jan Marsalek responsible for this.
Only recently, various media had taken up Markus Braun’s line of defense and published research according to which the money from the company could have flowed into accounts in the Caribbean. The insolvency administrator now argues against this in his current report.
In addition, Mr. Jaffé concludes that Wirecard AG was insolvent much earlier than June 2020, according to the report, which states that the operating loss from the beginning of 2015 to 2020 amounted to around 1.1 billion euros.
CLAIM AGAINST EY
Contrary to their own statements that their “top priority” was to help clarify the Wirecard scandal, EY’s auditors “refused to cooperate in any way in clarifying the events,” according to the status report. Accordingly, the insolvency administrator has filed an action for information against EY in order to gain insight into EY’s audit documents.
Furthermore, Mr. Jaffé is also asking the administrative court for access to the files of the German Federal Ministry of Justice, the auditor regulator Apas and the German Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP).
Would you like to claim your lost investment in Wirecard AG as damages? Then join the community of plaintiffs against the auditors EY here.