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Danyal Bayaz (Greens), Fabio de Masi (Die Linke) and Florian Toncar (FDP; from left)
Photo: Sean Gallup / POOL / EPA
Sharp questions until late at night, dozens of witnesses including the Chancellor and hundreds of gigabytes of data: an investigative committee in the Bundestag is trying to solve what is probably the largest case of fraud in post-war history.
It's about a billion-dollar balance sheet hole, massive damage to investors and the unprecedented crash of a stock market star.
The interim results of several factions were devastating.
The Wirecard scandal is not only due to a high level of criminal energy on the part of individuals, but also to serious errors by supervisory authorities and the federal government.
"All in all, you can see one thing refuted: That it was a natural disaster, that nobody made mistakes here," said the FDP's financial politician, Florian Toncar.
His colleague from the Greens, Danyal Bayaz, described three factors that were decisive for the alleged fraud: "A gang with a high level of criminal imagination and energy," a "collective failure" by authorities and supervisory bodies, and a whole army of lobbyists, "the cleaning of the door was all about that To bring the image of this technology star to men, women and politics «.
According to the opposition representatives, the committee has shown "across the board" problems in exercising responsibility.
Authorities would have looked more at responsibilities than thinking in context.
"We couldn't find anything else but that we have a culture of non-responsibility in Germany," said Toncar.
A stamp on the balance sheet year after year
The previous surveys revealed numerous breakdowns: e-mails regarding responsibility for money laundering supervision went unanswered for weeks, a call to the whistleblower hotline was stalled, critical information was ignored.
The parliamentary group deputy of the Left, Fabio De Masi, emphasized that state institutions had shown a high willingness "to take this criminal gang on the glue because they represented Wirecard".
The financial politician of the SPD, Jens Zimmermann, was shocked that even renowned auditors did not find out about the fraud.
Year after year they had "with their stamp on the balance sheets further strengthened the belief in the success story Wirecard".
The CDU finance politician Matthias Hauer, on the other hand, attacked others: "There was a blatant culture of looking the other way at Bafin and the Federal Ministry of Finance - in balance sheet control, financial supervision, money laundering supervision and employee transactions."
There were already allegations of manipulation against Wirecard at the beginning of 2019, and the share price was in turmoil.
The financial supervisory authority Bafin then imposed a two-month short sale ban, which prohibited speculation on falling prices for the company.
This strengthened the impression among investors that Wirecard was the victim of a targeted attack.
As the committee found out, the public prosecutor's office also played a role in this ban: They apparently believed the company's lawyers that Wirecard was being blackmailed and passed this information on to the Bafin.
The SPD is convinced that the alleged blackmail was "a robber pistol invented by Jan Marsalek," which the Bafin saw forced to act.
Bayaz says: Without the ban, the fraud would probably have been discovered much earlier.
In a table, the SPD listed resignations and dismissals in connection with the committee.
The list is long, from Bafin President Felix Hufeld to the "accounting police" DPR to the German head of the auditing company EY.
The personnel consequences are the result of the cross-faction cooperation, emphasized Hauer.
The AfD would prefer to be, it would not stay that way.
"Our demand that Finance Minister Scholz also take responsibility and step down, we will uphold until the end," announced the committee chairman and AfD politician Kay Gottschalk.
Merkel and Scholz also have to testify
Many questions, especially about the role of the federal government, are still open.
In which decisions was the management level of the Ministry of Finance privy to?
Why didn't the responsible state secretary ask more closely?
Why was a rescue plan drawn up for Wirecard even after the scandal was exposed?
Toncar criticizes the Ministry of Finance “had a very benevolent view of Wirecard”.
There is much to suggest that Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) could also be accused of not having done enough.
In any case, the finance minister has not yet done justice to his announcement of maximum clarification, says Hauer.
In April, Scholz will have the opportunity to clarify this before the committee.
A day later, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) was interviewed.
Wirecard was a service provider for cashless payments at the interface between merchants and credit card companies.
Fintech played in the top league of the stock market - and set the auditors ahead for years.
In the summer, Wirecard admitted a balance sheet hole of 1.9 billion euros - money from foreign business that appeared on the balance sheet, but in truth probably never existed.
The company filed for bankruptcy and thousands of investors lost money.
CEO Markus Braun was arrested, manager Jan Marsalek is on the run.
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hej / dpa-AFX
