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Bafin headquarters in Frankfurt am Main
Photo: Boris Roessler / DPA
Those who find out about problems at listed companies earlier than others can capitalize on them.
However, such shares as insiders are prohibited who could gain such knowledge by virtue of their position.
This applies above all to employees of the companies concerned themselves - and also to the supervisory authorities.
In the case of the financial supervisory authority Bafin, however, precisely such insider deals occurred in the Wirecard scandal.
In any case, the Bafin has now reported an employee to the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office on suspicion of insider trading in papers relating to the insolvent group.
The securities regulator sold so-called "structured products" related to Wirecard AG on June 17, 2020, the authority said.
One day after the employee's securities business, the former Dax group had conceded air bookings of 1.9 billion euros.
The financial supervisory authority discovered the suspicion against the employee according to their own statements as part of a special evaluation.
The employee was released immediately.
The Bafin announced that disciplinary proceedings had been opened against him.
Bafin under fire
The supervisory authority recently checked private stock market transactions of their employees in which the Wirecard AG price played a role, for example buying or selling shares in the company.
In addition, Bafin employees were prohibited from speculative financial transactions, i.e. short-term trading in shares, for example.
"We had a compliance system that met the legal requirements, but is no longer up-to-date and is therefore rightly being changed," Bafin boss Felix Hufeld said in an interview.
The former Dax group Wirecard had admitted air bookings of 1.9 billion euros in June and subsequently filed for bankruptcy - according to investigations by the Munich public prosecutor's office, it could total more than three billion euros.
Because this remained undiscovered for years, the Bafin is also criticized.
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beb / dpa