Icon: enlarge
Angela Merkel made Wirecard the subject of a trip to China
Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
The Wirecard investigation committee wants to question a number of prominent federal politicians, including Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
That said the financial policy spokesman for the FDP, Florian Toncar, before the constituent committee meeting.
In addition to Merkel, Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD), Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) and Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) will be summoned.
State Secretary for Finance Jörg Kukies and the imprisoned ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun are also on the list of representatives.
In connection with Merkel's trip to China in September 2019, ex-Federal Minister and Wirecard lobbyist Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg is also planned to be a witness.
During the trip, Merkel made the planned entry of Wirecard into the market for the Chinese management.
In the coming months, the MPs want to find out, among other things, whether the German fintech company, an up-and-coming stock market star and financial group, has been handled with kid gloves by the supervisory authorities despite indications of irregularities.
The now insolvent Dax group had granted air bookings of 1.9 billion euros in the summer.
As a service provider for cashless payments at checkouts and on the Internet, the company sat at the interface between merchants and credit card companies - in other words, in a highly competitive market.
According to the current status of the investigation, Wirecard made losses for years.
The Munich public prosecutor's office assumes that the company has shown fake profits since 2015.
More than three billion euros could be lost.
The financial supervision Bafin and the auditing company EY are also criticized in the case.
The scandal reveals "how the longing for fintech" Made in Germany "has blinded the federal government, supervisors and the state government of Bavaria," said the chairman of the left in the committee, Fabio De Masi, before the start.
Central questions in the political processing of the case are likely to be when exactly the federal government knew about irregularities and whether they did too little about it.
Shortly before the start of the investigation committee, Finance Minister Scholz and Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) presented an action plan for reforming financial supervision.
The opposition accuses him of trying to divert attention from his own failure as the chief financial regulator.
He is hiding behind auditors and alleged loopholes in the law.
A committee of inquiry has more rights than ordinary Bundestag committees.
He can question witnesses and experts and request inspection of the files.
It is controversial who should head the committee of inquiry.
According to parliamentary practice, the leadership of the AfD parliamentary group, which has nominated its financial politician Kay Gottschalk, would be responsible.
However, it remains to be seen whether the other committee members will vote for him.
"Financial Times" journalist should also testify
According to a ZDF report, the committee could begin with an expert hearing.
At least that is what the FDP, Greens and Left Party want it to be.
On October 28, among others, "Financial Times" journalist Dan McCrum should testify.
He reported early and comprehensively about irregularities at Wirecard.
The responsible public prosecutor's office in Munich, on the other hand, hardly took action against the payment processor of its own accord until Wirecard's sensational bankruptcy.
Only one of the 20 investigative and investigation proceedings recorded in the agency's files between 2010 and the beginning of June 2020 were carried out by the prosecutors "ex officio", reports the Reuters news agency, citing a list by the Bavarian Ministry of Justice.
The ministry responded to a request from the Greens in the state parliament.
In November 2017, according to the list, the public prosecutors had investigated suspicions of "aiding and abetting the unauthorized organization of a game of chance" after they noticed transactions from online casinos.
There was no preliminary investigation.
The responsibility of the Bafin should also be discussed in detail in the committee.
The financial supervisory authority did not feel responsible for the majority of Wirecard because the group was classified as a technology company instead of a financial company.
At the same time, Bafin employees speculated in part with Wirecard shares.
The Bafin wants to take another close look at the Wirecard business from 2018 to 2020.
The authority had "initiated a special evaluation that has not yet been completed," says the Federal Ministry of Finance's answer to a parliamentary request from Frank Schäffler, member of the Bundestag FDP, which the Handelsblatt has received.
Accordingly, 56 Bafin employees reported a total of 196 private Wirecard-related transactions in the first half of 2020 - more than in the entire previous year.
Icon: The mirror
dab / dpa / AFP
