Missing BILLIONS!! Europe’s Biggest Financial Scandal! 💶

It was one of the biggest corporate Scandals in history This is a story about a company worth Nearly 30 billion dollars going bust an Indicted ceo some of the biggest Auditors in the business being called in And a fugitive from justice Today i’m going to tell you everything You need to know about this scandal sit Tight folks this you cannot afford to Miss [Music] I know this topic is tense so a Disclaimer before we commence financial Advice is not something i dispense just Entertainment and education with a hint Of common sense please contact a Financial advisor if you need help with The old pounds and pence Now if this is your first time at the Coin bureau hq my name is guy and crypto Is what i do This channel is home to some of the Highest quality crypto content on Youtube coins tokens news and reviews Are just a few of the topics i construe If that sounds good to you subscribe to The channel and ping that notification Bell for more crypto truth you can use The timestamps to skip around if your Clock is ticking fast but remember that Watching until the end is the best way To make this knowledge last Now before my rhymes fly too far off the

Handle let’s go tackle the wire card Scandal Okay before we get into the anatomy of This scandal let me give you a bit of Context for those who have never heard Of wirecard well here’s the 101. The wirecard story entails a series of Accounting scandals that resulted in the Insolvency of wirecard ag a german Payment processor and financial services Provider that was part of the Prestigious dax index Located in munich the payment processor Offered its customers electronic payment And transaction services risk management And the issuing and processing of Physical cards Now allegations of accounting Malpractice have trailed the company Since the early days of its Incorporation reaching a peak in 2019 When the financial times published a Series of investigations along with Whistleblower complaints and internal Documents But the wirecard scandal stretched well Beyond european borders it involved Banks in the philippines some of the World’s biggest vc investors and International auditor ernst young On june the 25th 2020 wirecard filed for Insolvency after revelations that 1.9 Billion euros were reportedly missing The arrest of its ceo marcus braun soon

Followed So let’s dive in and see what actually Happened here shall we Now there are two main personalities in This story marcus braun ceo of wirecard And his deputy jan marcelek In the corridors of corporate germany Marcus braun had become a legend a Little-known entrepreneur until just a Few years ago braun had transformed an Obscure bavarian company called wirecard Into a german tech icon winning a Coveted spot on the benchmark dax stock Index Founded in 1999 wirecard provided the Invisible financial plumbing that with a Wave of plastic over a card reader Almost anywhere in the world made Transactions happen In just under a decade wirecard came to Be hailed as one of the most promising Tech startups in germany and across Europe even managing to be included on Forbes’s list of most innovative Companies So needless to say marcus braun knew What he was doing Now braun joined the munich-based Fintech startup in 2002 as the company’s Ceo This was at a time when many companies In the sector were only just recovering From the dot-com bubble and a number of Them were on the verge of collapse

Clearly the addition of a young buck With new and bold ideas made sense to a Fledgling startup like wirecard at the Time Born in 1969 in vienna braun graduated From the technical university there with A degree in commercial computer science He went on to earn himself a phd in Social and economic sciences from the University of vienna in 2000 He began his career as a consultant at Contrast management consulting a Position which he held on to until late 1998. Between 1998 and 2001 braun then moved Into the big leagues of the consulting Industry winning himself her position at Kpmg consulting in munich Using his computer science and business Consulting expertise upon joining Wirecard he dedicated his energy and Resources towards consolidating the Company and focusing the business model On providing internet payment services Mobile applications e-commerce and card Issuance When he first started at wirecard braun Was convinced that in the decade that Followed the entire retail payment Infrastructure would be replaced by Technology merging all payment streams Into a single fully digitized system He also predicted that cash would become An exception to the rule especially when

It came to payments well he wasn’t Completely wrong there Now the other main character in this Story is jan marcelek the fugitive from Justice mentioned earlier but we’ll get Back to him Wirecard’s origins date back to 1999 When its berlin-based predecessor Infogenie was founded Infogeni’s shares had been listed on the Neue marked stock market segment since October 2000 and the company was acting As an information service provider Offering telephone advice hotlines on Various topics an expert network of Sorts if you will But when price losses reduced infogenie Shares to penny stocks the stock Exchange operator deutsche bourse wanted To exclude infogenie from the neue Market Then in mid 2004 infogenie decided to Transfer the non-listed wirecard to Infogeni ag and wirecard listed its Shares on frankfurt stock exchange Through a reverse merger with infogenie In 2005. Now while reverse ipos aren’t uncommon They’re often criticized for allowing The acquiring entity to avoid full Disclosure requirements and scrutiny of Its books which would have been part of A normal ipo process In wirecard’s case its reverse listing

Through a failing entity that was Operating as nothing more than a shell Company should of course have raised Some questions Anywho back to the story Marcus braun built up wirecard by Initially offering its services to Pornographic and gambling sites which at The time were emerging businesses that Other payment service providers tended To avoid After wirecard’s reverse ipo with Infogenie and the subsequent listing on The frankfurt stock exchange braun saw The company through an aggressive International expansion Wirecard launched an asia-pacific Subsidiary in singapore expanded into The middle east by opening subsidiaries In dubai and reached into the u.s market Through the acquisition of citigroup’s Prepaid card services division Wirecard asia pacific was founded in 2007 and in 2008 wirecard introduced Virtual prepaid credit cards for online Payments the following year it launched A fraud detection and prevention suite From 2010 wirecard’s profits began to Explode in a manner that seemed almost Too good to be true Wirecard at one point even replaced Germany’s second largest lender commerce Bank on the dax index hitting an overall Market capitalization of over 22 billion

Euros placing it above even the mighty Deutsche bank This made wirecard a darling of the German economy and the wider european Fintech scene ushering in a new wave of Vc capital excitement and interest to Almost rival that around silicon valley Wirecard’s main line of business was Processing electronic payments for Merchants and according to its website Its customer base included major Businesses and international merchants Such as fedex fitbit and the dutch Airline klm But questions about wirecard’s finances And sudden expansion throughout the mid To late 2000s began surfacing in 2008 After the head of a german shareholder Association alleged the company’s 2007 Consolidated accounts were incomplete And misleading In light of this wirecard hired ernst Young now known as ey to conduct an Official audit which actually showed no Irregularities The shareholder association’s report had Originally raised concerns around Wirecard’s finances nonetheless one of The report’s authors was actually Prosecuted and briefly jailed for not Disclosing short positions that he held In wirecard stock from which he profited When the share price fell After ey declared that no irregularities

Had been spotted in the account Consolidation process wirecard continued To prosper by making contactless Payments seem effortless while Attracting what it claimed to be Thousands of new merchants Between 2011 and 2014 the company raised 500 million euros from shareholders and Began an even more aggressive International expansion program In 2014 wirecard expanded into new Zealand australia south africa and Turkey And in 2016 the company even acquired an Internet payment service provider in Brazil In parallel with this wirecard bought up Small third-party payment companies Called merchant acquirers around asia as Well luring in more investors and Lifting the share price now the collapse Of wirecard began when it was at its Very peak once it had entered the 20 Billion euro valuation realm and was Added to the dax index But far away from its munich Headquarters the illegitimate side of Wirecard’s business was also flourishing In fact the wirecard accounting scandal Centers around escrow accounts set up by Several other businesses which allowed Wirecard to operate in countries where It didn’t actually have a license Including singapore indonesia malaysia

Dubai and elsewhere Now the merchant acquirers which Provided retailers with credit card Payment terminals that were then plugged Into wirecard’s payment system generated A large chunk of revenue and profit for The company over the years They were supposed to have deposited Revenue for wirecard into the escrow Accounts Instead the funds might have never Existed at all Now it didn’t take long for some Analysts short sellers and independent Research firms to begin noticing Irregularities For instance mark hailey a founding Partner of the london-based independent Research provider the analyst which Makes recommendations for short sellers Was among a handful of outspoken critics From 2014 he wrote 43 reports Highlighting why wirecard was what he Deemed quote a house of cards as it Dished out hundreds of millions of euros To acquire operations throughout asia Now based on the in-depth findings put Forward by the analyst it’s curious that The companies wirecard was acquiring had Previously been pretty small businesses With relatively low revenues and limited Profitability And the real question on the minds of Critics and analysts was

Why the heck was wirecard allocating so Much capital towards acquiring these Companies Well the mystery deepened when wirecard Reported that the merchant acquirers and So-called third-party entities were Suddenly raking in big bucks These companies seem to have undergone An almost impossible growth spurt in Just a year or so and to critics this Simply didn’t make sense This included a series of small and Seemingly defunct companies around the Globe which saw their businesses booked In the wirecard spreadsheets these Included bank debinary a financial firm Which closed in march 2017 following Regulatory pressure molotok a former Russian competitor to ebay and piku a Shuttered coupon business from japan Perhaps most notable of all however was The dubai-based entity al-alam which Soon became a focal point of the Financial times inquiries into wirecart Analysts and ft journalists soon came to View al-alam as the spider at the heart Of an international web processing vast Amounts of cash for 34 of wirecard’s Most important and lucrative clients in The u.s europe the middle east russia And japan But when the ft visited al-alam’s dubai Office in early 2019 it became clear That this was a threadbare operation

With the paper reporting that one of Wirecard’s most important affiliates Only had around six or seven employees Curious isn’t it Now these third-party businesses Acquired by wirecard provided it with Reports of combined revenue from Merchant transactions but with no Particular or detailed breakdown On paper such operations inevitably made Wirecard look even more profitable to Investors but they also prevented Wirecard’s auditors from being able to Verify its accounts But scrutiny intensified when wirecard Bought an indian payment business for 340 million euros in 2015. That same year a research entity called J capital research which provides Investment advisory services published a Report stating that wirecard’s asia Operations were actually a lot smaller Than the company had led investors to Believe Obviously wirecard accused short sellers Of paying for the report’s publication The following year financial times Journalists who had begun running a Series of articles raising similar Concerns and suspicions reported Becoming targets of prolonged hacking Campaigns Among them was matthew earl an Investigator and co-author of a report

By zatara a financial research and Investigations firm that claimed to have Identified alleged money laundering Inside the wirecard empire Earl stated that he suspected that Wirecard was falsifying its profits and Balance sheets partly through buying Companies at high prices which included The indian firm where the purchase money Went directly to related parties before Being returned to wirecard In the minds of many wirecard was purely A smokescreen A layer of apparent legitimacy to Eclipse its opaque more obscure and Illegitimate financial dealings But folks It gets worse Soon after the reports were published According to mr earl he started being Followed and watched at his home and Office and became the target of a Fishing campaign featuring sophisticated Emails that included extensive personal Details about him and his family There was certainly something bigger and Badder at stake here In fact mark highly from the analyst Recounted a similar experience when he Reportedly sent an investigator to india To verify his suspicions that the third Party company was not generating as much Money as wirecard claimed Furthermore according to a report by the

New york times when the investigator Went to the address listed for Wildcard’s local affiliate in chennai he Found nothing but a small office in a Dilapidated building Wirecard had no affiliated company there There were reportedly only a few Employees a few broken laptops and no Customers to be seen But when the investigator left according To mr hailey he noticed that he was Being followed Now despite the criticisms the doubters And the reports by both independent Entities as well as the ft Wirecard was progressively becoming part Of germany’s corporate elite with its Ascent into the tax index in 2018 Causing a sensation In april 2019 the german financial Regulator baffin filed a criminal Complaint against several short sellers And the financial times after wirecard Accused them of negative reporting to Drive down the company’s share price i Mean this is absolutely insane But again ey had been approving Wirecard’s consolidated accounts for Years and had never once found any Discrepancy or irregularity So i guess baffin must have thought well If ey gives wirecard its stamp of Approval then so do we On top of that in april 2019 a

Staggering 900 million euro investment Into wirecard by softbank was announced This took the form of a convertible note Issuance from wirecard equating to Softbank eventually acquiring around six Percent of its equity Now despite all the accusations of Wrongdoing from the ft softbank instead Deemed wirecard’s finances to be in good Health a move which saw softbank’s Investment strategies later heavily Scrutinized Now as wirecard’s success and share Price skyrocketed marcus braun began Moving more into the spotlight he became An a-list speaker at technology and Payment conferences where he was hailed As a fintech hero and rock star Believing his own hype he even began Wearing steve job style black Turtlenecks He promoted the concept of a fully Cashless society from which players like Wirecard stood to benefit and predicted That all retail payments would be Digital within a decade But throughout 2019 and 2020 as more Reports of suspected wrongdoing emerged The company delayed ey’s annual report For 2019 and hired kpmg instead to Provide an independent assessment of its Books That audit released in april 2020 did Very little to douse the growing fire in

Fact in the most serious finding Covering 2016 to 2018 kpmg stated that It was unable to verify the existence of A whopping 1 billion euros in revenue That wirecard had booked through its Three third-party acquiring partners Consequently in june of 2020 regulators And the police barged into wirecard’s hq And search the office launching a Criminal investigation against marcus Braun and probing the company’s Management board But what’s particularly compelling about This development is that wirecard’s ceo Jan martilek subsequently went missing Now soon after kpmg shed light on its Inability to locate more than a billion Euros that were meant to be resting in One of wirecard’s affiliated entities in Manila it became clear that the vast Majority of its profits had been Inflated and tampered with and its Accounts falsified over several years This of course posed a major problem for Marcelec who is now faced with the Daunting task of having to come up with Hundreds of millions of euros that he Could transfer from asia to europe for Verification And This was the beginning of the end for Wirecard Now jan marcelleck was ousted from Wirecard in june of 2020. according to

Reports tensions were high between him And marcus braun on the last day they Were spotted together at the wirecard hq In munich Marsalax exit and wire cards going up in Smoke played out over the course of just One week Based on reports by baffin and other Authorities there’s reason to believe That marcelec had established strong Ties with a russian mercenary commander As well as russia’s fsb security service He clearly had the money the connections And the means to disappear hence why he Hasn’t been seen since Now in some ways maselec is a sort of Mirror image of wirecard there’s the Visible legal and legitimate side of him As wirecard’s co and then there’s the More opaque obscure side the one Connected with russian mercenaries and Suspicious visits to syria close to the Isis front lines as well as alleged gang Affiliations Now there’s reason to believe that Martilec potentially in collaboration With marcus braun funneled more than 2 Billion euros out of the company Marcelec is most likely responsible for Transferring large sums of capital Provided by the company to wirecard’s Third-party companies across the globe This means that wirecard’s third-party Entities were nothing more than shell

Companies used to funnel money through With martilek being nowhere to be found Authorities arrested marcus braun in June of 2020 on suspicion of false Accounting and market manipulation The search for his alleged partner in Crime goes on Now the natural question here is how Could a scandal of this scale occur Within a company that had only recently Been added to germany’s prestigious tax Index It’s one the investors and creditors Currently demanding over 12 billion Dollars in repayments are keen to have Answered however until this case is Properly solved it’s unlikely they’re Going to see those funds returned There are of course many lessons to be Learnt from this and the decline of Wirecard is quite frankly a huge Embarrassment for a lot of important People and the companies they work for There are the auditors including in ey One of the largest accounting firms in The world A firm which actively signed off on Wirecard’s accounts for years And the question that remains unanswered Is why did they not detect what was Going on at the time i mean must we now Even audit the auditors One would assume that ey as one of the World’s largest auditors would have at

Least executed proper due diligence on Wirecard’s account consolidation process There’s also the questions surrounding The incredible amount of interest hype And attention that wirecard generated Throughout the years putting itself at The heart of the german and european Fintech innovation sector This perhaps speaks to marcus braun’s Astute salesman skills and to his Visionary road map for the company which Clearly blinded regulators auditors and International authorities from seeing What was really going on behind the Scenes Investors who bet on wirecard shares Also lost heavily But perhaps the largest loss of all was The one suffered by the german Government which had placed so much Faith in wirecard igniting a new silicon Valley-like tech scene in both germany And the rest of europe Speaking of losers marcus braun was also One of the largest investors in the Company and with the company filing for Insolvency on the 25th of june 2020 and With its shares crumbling he went from Being almost a billionaire to a jail Cell quite the downfall He was charged in march 2022 by munich Prosecutors with fraud breach of trust And accounting manipulation if found Guilty of all these charges he faces a

Lengthy sentence jan marcel x Whereabouts remain a mystery he’s Currently on interpol’s most wanted list And has been an international fugitive Since 2020. Soon after ey refused to sign off Wirecard’s 2019 results marcelec Reportedly took a taxi to a small Airport in austria where he boarded a Private jet which he paid for in cash According to an austrian police document Seen by the financial times he then flew To minsk where his trail goes cold Some reports claim that he’s residing in A gated community in moscow under the Care of the fsb but We can’t say for sure Be it russia the middle east or some Caribbean island the fact of the matter Is that no one really can put a finger On where he may be hiding out more Importantly until he is found we might Never know the full story of the wire Card scandal and how deep it all went And that concludes today’s video folks i Hope you enjoyed it but i would love Your feedback so what do you think of The wirecard scandal how do you think The german government should have Reacted what should the auditors have Done differently and where is jan Marcelek Remember to subscribe to the channel and Ping that notification bell if you’d

Like to keep getting the highest quality Crypto and related content on the scene Make sure you also check out the coin Bureau clips channel to get all the Information you need on emergency crypto Market moves and the coin bureau podcast For a weekly dose of myself and mad mike Chewing the crypto cud I’ll see you very soon but until then This is where i can be found tiktok Telegram instagram and twitter Subscribing to my weekly newsletter will Make your crypto life that bit better It’s packed with all the tips and tricks That will make your gains stick You may also want to check out my deals Page it’s got some of the best crypto Deals and promos on the market today Thank you so much for watching folks and I’ll see you all very soon this is guy Bidding you Goodbye [Music] You

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