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Wirecard in front of the investigative committee - it could be uncomfortable for the federal government

2020-10-08T09:33:02.176Z


In the Wirecard accounting scandal, an investigative committee is to clarify what went wrong from today. Was the company handled with kid gloves by the authorities?


In the Wirecard accounting scandal, an investigative committee is to clarify what went wrong from today.

Was the company handled with kid gloves by the authorities?

  • The

    Wirecard

    accounting scandal

    now ends up in front of a committee of inquiry.

  • Federal Finance Minister

    Olaf Scholz

    and Economics Minister

    Peter

    Altmaier

    have to testify.

  • The MPs also want to clarify whether government agencies may have been too

    lenient

    with the company

Berlin - The

eagerly awaited committee of inquiry into the spectacular accounting scandal surrounding the former Dax group

Wirecard

will start in the

Bundestag

on Thursday (3 p.m.)

.

* 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, was handled with kid gloves by the supervisory authorities despite indications of irregularities.

The now insolvent

Dax

group had admitted 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 a highly competitive market.

Wirecard: damage of over three billion euros

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 supervisory authority

Bafin

and the auditing company EY are criticized in the case.

The scandal reveals "how the longing for a 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 will be when exactly the federal government knew about irregularities and whether they did too little about it.

How could it be that 1.9 billion euros disappear from a company's balance sheet without the financial supervisory authority noticing anything, asks @FabioDeMasi (Die Linke), #Investigation Committee #Wirecard.

pic.twitter.com/um8B5p14M1

- ZDF Morgenmagazin (@morgenmagazin) October 8, 2020

In

response to the scandal,

Finance Minister

Olaf Scholz

and Justice Minister

Christine Lambrecht

(both

SPD

) have already presented an action plan for reforming financial supervision.

The opposition, however, 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.

Wirecard: In addition to Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, Chancellor Angela Merkel is also threatened with a summons

It is considered certain that Scholz will be summoned as a witness in the investigative committee - as is economic minister

Peter Altmaier

(CDU) and even Chancellor

Angela Merkel

, who had worked

hard

for

Wirecard

on a trip to China last autumn

.

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 currently 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.

Everyone should decide for themselves, stressed the chairman of the Union in the committee,

Matthias Hauer

.

It is crucial that the committee pushes the education - and the AfD has hardly been noticed so far.

(dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen Digital editorial network.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-10-08

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