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Wirecard company sign at the former corporate headquarters in Aschheim (archive): Left, Greens and FDP speak of failure at all levels
Photo: Peter Kneffel / dpa
The Wirecard investigation committee of the Bundestag has already questioned more than a hundred witnesses, including Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
Now the representatives of the Greens, the Left and the FDP have presented their final report and are taking the German authorities and the federal government to court.
The authorities failed at all levels in the financial scandal, according to the 675-page special vote of the opposition.
"It's about the biggest stock market and financial scandal of the post-war period," write the representatives of the opposition.
This was made possible by "collective supervisory failure" as well as by a "political network" and the longing for a "digital national champion".
The former Dax group went into bankruptcy in June 2020 after billions in air bookings became known.
The public prosecutor's office is investigating falsification of accounts, fraud, market manipulation and money laundering.
In addition to the failure of the supervisory authorities, there is also a clear political responsibility for the scandal, said Fabio de Masi (left).
This is the main difference to the final vote of the coalition parties CDU / CSU and SPD, which is expected for the end of June.
There is "a very clear ceasefire agreement in the grand coalition that no political responsibility is named," said de Masi.
On the part of the Union, there are people who have actively campaigned for Wirecard. On the part of the SPD, there is Minister Scholz responsible for the financial supervisory authority Bafin. "Political leadership and responsibility also include taking responsibility," said de Masi. Scholz did not do that, "he always ducked away." In the report, however, the opposition politicians also come to the conclusion that Scholz's personal role has not been clarified beyond any doubt. Scholz has always denied complicity in the Wirecard scandal.
The financial policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Florian Toncar, also spoke of failures at Bafin and the customs anti-money laundering unit, the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). He called for the resignation of the state ministers responsible for these two authorities. "The Wirecard scandal was not a natural phenomenon, it was preventable," said Toncar. The work of the committee of inquiry showed that the fraud, although well thought out, was not perfectly organized. "It would have been absolutely imperative that the authorities and auditors got on earlier and ended this matter earlier."
The Green politician Lisa Paus said the committee of inquiry had "worked intensively and broadly." The purpose of the now published special opinion is to "take full account" of the work of the committee of inquiry. Paus criticized that the aim of the federal government in the course of the Wirecard scandal was to "boil it down into a pure accounting scandal". "Of course there is a political responsibility - it was a multi-billion dollar government failure," Paus said.
The opposition parties also expressed clear criticism of the year-long Wirecard auditor EY: "The auditing activities were simply inadequate." A critical attitude was never discernible. There was a lack of evidence for large parts of the business activity and confirmations for alleged trust accounts in the billions. EY also bricked the committee of inquiry. Serious damage was done to the job description.
The investigative committee, decided in October 2020, is to review the incidents around the former Dax group and in particular to investigate the actions of the federal government and the authorities subordinate to it.
The government factions of the Union and SPD want to submit their own assessment of the committee of inquiry.
A special vote is expected from the AfD.
The Bundestag is then to discuss the findings in plenary at the end of June.
fdi / Reuters / AFP