The Wirecard Fraud – How One Man Fooled all of Germany – Blog

RAZR
Whenever I hear someone called a “Genius” or “Visionary”… I’m like : Ok we’ll see about that…
Fit Fogey
I find it more impressive that instead of AI, employees used excel to do something proficiently.
Vincent Guttmann
One suggestion: Add the date of TV interviews and other video snippets to make some things a bit clearer.
Yannik Hörnschemeyer
What I’ ve learned form Wirecard and Theranos: If a CEO thinks he/she is the next Steve Jobs, he/she is probably quite the opposite
ProV3rit4s
In case you did not know: Braun isnt german, he is austrian… Seems like Austria has a habit of stirring up Germany
SOFTWARE MASTER
I am a CEO of a company and I wear Steve Jobs like clothes… Soft Bank: Say no more fam!!
Erik
If the CEO of a company dresses like Steve Jobs they immediately should be investigated
Dylan Blomme
I can only imagine how amazing his neighbors felt after the man that was “going to buy your apartments” went bankrupt lmao
mookabimbae
Journalist: “So wtf is going on with wirecard?” CEO: “Uh we are very much like innovation”
Savvasaam
Every time i hear a stream of words including “innovative, machine learning, ecosystem, the future” I stop listening. Very clearly a scam. When people talk about the business models that really exist and really work, they speak in another way.
AgeingBoyPsychic
OMG I worked for a Wirecard call center in Leipzig for about a week. It was horrendous. Had to do an UNPAID week long course on recognising fraud before being allowed to work there… By the way, “Braun” is pronounced “Brown” in German (and also means brown).
Ivor Alex
I’m impressed at how slick and professional this channel is. Its reports are as good as anything I’ve seen on the best known international TV stations. Congratulations!
Jackisaboss1208
Worked for Bosch when the Dieselgate scandal hit. Currently working for the EY Assurance business, I swear these scandals follow me
Skeptical Chris
Softbank needs a video of their own… And if you’ve made one, then a sequel
A - cat
this reminds me of the Steinhoff scandal we had in south Africa a few years back. like it’s an international holding company that sponsored some of my University’s sports teams but there was some clever accounting funny business. So somehow the company recovered and the CEO, also Markus (Jooste), is free with some court cases. No African millionaire’s will ever go to jail (like they get to stay at home because of heart conditions or whatever)
Joel Pérez
“how one man fooled all of Germany”… well, not the 1st time that happens.
Mohammad Reza
Even if the business were successful, I think comparing him – founder of a payment processing and banking company – to Steve Jobs is a bit absurd
Harald Hechler
They had the same problem like me: Everytime I check my bank account, I’m thinking “There should be some 2 Billion Euros more on this account…”
barfyman362
Softbank Logic: “You’re charismatic, here take my money!”
Jnite
It is wild to me that a company who made their name acting as an acquirer for online casinos and porn sites could ever have made it this far into the game before real questions started being asked.
Ammar Taicho
Softbank: Oh, you wear Steve Jobs clothes (turtleneck)… take a billion.
Car Jac
When a CEO wears a suit, he runs an evil company When a CEO wears a hoodie, he runs a great tech company When the CEO wears a shirt, he runs an innovative company When a CEO wears a turtleneck and he’s not Steve Jobs, he’s a fraudster.
BottledBanana
Financial times: “So why did you list a fake branch office in the Phillipines?” Wirecard: “something something ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” Softbank: “sounds like a solid deal to me”
Filler40
scam company: im a “tech” company Softbank: ok here’s 10 billion dollars
Arhat's Corner
Company: Is shady but does “tech” Softbank: “I’ll take your entire stock!!!”
coFFin Q
man, i really don’t think there’s a channel that beats your quality of videos and information.
Salty Lad
“Machine learning” i.e. Excel spreadsheet. lmao
mv100 mv100
It’s amazing how often all these smart people in the finance industry fail to spot crooks.
ricky v
Hey Dagogo thank you for all the work that you do to make these videos. I enjoy your videos a lot. Speaking of that enjoyment this is another of those videos that I enjoyed. I see this happening at Corporations all the time. People want to accomplish more than their predecessor and will go to any lengths to do so. It’s unfortunate to see since we can all do well when we do all that we are capable of doing. Instead of attempting to be someone else or surpass them. I am excited for your next video and will be on the look out for it. (:
Lily
Hi Dagogo, thanks for this good content. Clear explanations and good sequencing. I’ve watched a few of your doccies and I haven’t been disappointed. Thanks and well done!
EZ Pages - Páginas de Venda
Would be awesome to see a video about the impact that the free and open source software model had on the world. Not many people can appreciate its scale.
Ashadow Reviews
At some point I would really love to see a full, in-depth look at Soft bank’s protfolio. How much other WeWork/Uber/Wirecard is in there, or is a majority of their investments actually reasonably solid?
Swiper The Sniper[Dhruv]
its a good day when coldfusion uploads
Rene Schickbauer
When you are in retirement and find out through the press that you are (supposedly) a high-paid manager in an international company… could you sue the company for back pay?
Raychelle Injete
Thank you for a well researched presentation. It teaches Start Ups a lot about what goes on in the tech industry
xybp942
Good rule of thumb: if softbank invests in it, sell.
Michel Vieira
Hi I am from Brazil… and use YouTube heavily since 2008 and I come forward to tell you that among all amazing Channels we got on YTB yours in my view is easily the BEST from the format narrative and also your minimalist view is amazing. Congratulations for you outstanding job. Be proud of yourself because you deserve it! Ohhh Muito obrigado Pelo conteudo! Cheers!!!!
Paul
Very informative, great video. As discussed it is amazing that the regulatory bodies, like in 2007, continue to find it so difficult to do their job affectively.
Blue Sun Productions
Really nice job on this. You did better job the every news outlet that covered this. Keep up good work
Kevin Pedersen
at Bambora we had the motto “Money are never missing” Bambora is also an acquiring company acting as middleman between end customer and stores. So this is something that hits close to home.
Sergio Martinez
Thank you for this video. I appreciate your unbiased presentation coupled with your polite demeanor, which is a pair of qualities in deficit on youtube.
Ammgad Hussein
Mr. Coldfusion, I want to thank you for making this video. I’ve been following the Wirecard story since the begging it’s been hand hard to understand as US Bankruptcy law / Business Law is different. Also the idea of insolvency has never been applied her in the US.
cody byars
I can’t get enough of your videos! I know there is surely a limit to how many you can do, how many you want to do, how many you can do the research on to make with the quality of info you do. That said, I want so much more than is realistic for me to expect or crave from you. I also know that you take an outstanding measure to relay the facts of recorded history in a nonbiased true to what you find historical; fashion. Maybe those findings are part or fully conjecture/speculation historical recordings but you make it a practice to point out which is which while reporting on it so that we can make our own conclusions based on the recorded historical information. I love your stuff and hope that you keep it up.
Robert Cowart
Interesting video. Personally I was never aware that Wirecard was considered one of German tech’s big success stories. I didn’t get that impression when I visited them. In 2017 I held a workshop for some of their technical staff, and introduced them to various methods for leveraging machine learning to detect fraudulent credit card transactions. With that experience I would say that It is a bit inaccurate when some say that they were doing nothing that they claimed to be doing. However it was clearly not anywhere near as mature as their CEO seemed to be presenting.
beanhill
At this point I’m surprised SoftBank didn’t invest in theranos
Zakary Morton King
me buys a black turtle neck goldman sachs, rupert murdoc, softbank: Ah yes a man of culture, here take the gdp of south america and go nuts
Danny Danny
I’ve paused after a minute or so just to say I appreciate your work, Dagogo. The turnaround on getting this video out is amazing. I must also say that by scrolling to the comments I’ve already seen that SoftBank are an investor. Hahahahahahaha.
Vinícius Neves da Conceição
Dagogo is a big tech enthusiast like myself. I like that he tells a bit of the history of technology along with the history of the companies behind it and also that he is open-minded to dismantle the frauds and lies of capitalism, both with a broad critical view of the financial system and also under the magnifying glass, company by company.
John C
Awesome documentation and presentation as usual! Love this channel!
Mytwistedvoices
I enjoy you profession presentations that offer thoughts and possibilities to those of us not in the tech industry.
Mangani Phiri
Having watched the Theranos video, in hindsight it’s laughable how such bogus companies get away with, “murder,” for such a long time. And this is in develop were there are more strict controls in place.
Afrobarbie - sustainable lifestyle channel
Softbank literally invests in all the scam companies 😂😂😂
Michael Cao
This company is also invested by Soft Bank like WeWork. Masayoshi Son really can’t get a break.
FenceJumpa
I love how people target companies like Tesla even more fervor than Wirecard….
Andrzej Sobczak
Great video! I miss in the story explanation on how the actual fraud worked and who profited from it? EUR 2bn missing, however it’s due to faked operations in Asia (missing cash that they “made”). The CEO and other executives profited from the increase in value (but has he been selling his stock?), management bonuses related to growth (based on KPI’s)? Do you have any additional info on who profited from the fraud?
Abate Faria
One of my favorite channels if not the one. Thanks for all the efforts!
Mark Schouls
You’re one of the best on YouTube! I love your videos! Keep up the incredible work.
Azan Ali
Ask me the pain. I had 50 shares, each was bought at €100. Edit: Now it’s at €0.2
Aotearoa Excubitores
You rock ! Just 3 weeks ago i Watched WSJ short doc about wirecard and mentioned you by name, wondering whether you would make one hahah keep up the good works mate !
Valtteri
I really love these corporate scandal videos you are doing!
Sammy Hegab
I had interview with Wirecard when I was working in Munich. They certainly sounded they had great innovative tech and I was tempted to invest in the company back in 2016.
Blue311
Oh I love scams like this, Enron and Theranos! Thank you coldfusion! We have our own swedish equivalent called “Klarna” it’s essentially the same as Wirecard
Sangeetha Abraham
Excellent coverage . I love watching all your videos. Its really informative
Brenden Parker
It’s staggering how con artists still fool us in today’s age of information. Again and again!
Deepanjan Sengupta
Love the videos you make with so much background research. In every video I learn something 🆕. 👍👍
john zee
Coldfusion is one great channel I have to say. Love your work.
ralcool
Thankyou Dagogo. The music, your tone of voice. Calm and concise. I enjoy your work.
Lord Typesalot
I love how everyone claims not to have known a thing, from the politicians and the regulators, all of whom had connections to Wirecard, to the investment elites, who always call themselves „financial experts“. However, nothing will top the fact, that a company, which to its end, dealt in digital payment of online adult film productions went on to become a player along Porsche, Siemens and BMW. The irony…
Drew
As an investor if I hear the word “innovative”, I would run
Panzerkeks 85
The way the CEO answers the questions at around 06:40 you immediately know the guy has no idea, just empty words
DutchManticore
“He would even take out large loans with his shares as collateral” Even?! That’s absolutely a bog standard way of raising cash for equity billionaires
Roman Rüdisühli
Very interesting and well made videos… the 4th one I see on this channel and I am amazed, thank you! I want to support. One thing that I have in mind, after Theranos, Madoff, Wirecard… is that sure, there is always one face… but we have to remember that this does not happen just because one is evil… it happen because, very well explained here, there are other person that let say “let” it happen. It would be very interesting to see people get fired from the “regulators” because this is also, their faults… but you never see that, why?
Gio Paredes
My eyes widens when you mentioned the Philippines. As a Filipino, I personally never heared the company Wiredcard before.
Uma Skanda
I am learning a great deal from your videos. Thank you very much.
Milutin Sekulić
Phenomenal production quality as always.
TIE _
Very good point, this company was audited for 8 years in a row by big 4 firms and the found nothing. Makes me question their competence.
nichegoseberazdvatri
They project confidence, and once they realize that projecting that confidence is the key to winning and convincing, they keep going.
James Makoni
As a Payoneer customer I was directly affected by the scandal. My debit cards couldn’t work for about 4 days. My friend’s mom was due for a cancer treatment but because the funds on their cards were frozen too they couldn’t go.
Jar Jar Blinks
Can you make a video on how firms are doing right now in which SoftBank has invested over all these years.? I think it will be interesting to see
Prashan Jayatheepam
I landed a job at wirecard in June 2020. The day before I was supposed to hand over my resignation, they filed for insolvency. Thank God that was a near miss.
Michel Bruns
I’m from Germany and I have never used or even seen wirecards “products” or services except from the news of course
tkzsfen
Just a second – it turns out that the fintech companies pose a substantial risk, by overrelying on them. There has to be something in the legislation that should protect the customers from such pricks.
Arthur Morgan
Wirecard was using sftp to exchange financial information stored as csv files when I worked at a telco company that used them for all payments. That was 4 years ago, not early 2000s. That should tell you everything you should know about their “tech”
The Evil That Men Do
Simply shocked at this happening in puritan Germany. If I can add one thing to this report that is to look at how ‘convinced’ this broken soul of a man was. This is far more shocking than the report. Clearly, there was a HUGE disconnect between his reality and what he made himself to believe. I do not exactly know what mental turmoil went inside his mind. But I do know that all workers should be screened and helped if they have mental disorders. No matter what position they take in society. Otherwise we are going to witness many other ENRON meltdowns.
Steve Clancy
The CTO in Singapore back in 2019 was actually a consultant from a boutique consulting firm out of the U.K.. He was looking to recruit his replacement and I was interviewed. This was way above my level though would have been a dream opportunity. Fortunately having just survived a very stressful period I did not want to jump back into the fire. So I declined but this maybe explains why I was even being considered. He knew a reckoning was coming perhaps.
B S
I’ve got to say, I have lived in multiple european countries and travelled to germany quite often, but have never heard from this company. All i know is that germany still hates no cash payments
Kevin dela Cruz
Hi! I’m from Philippines. I did not expect that my country was involved in this scandal. Nice video though. Keep it up!
DJ dahous
This level of fraud should have been noticed. Who was responsible to check Wirecard from a public / legal perspective?
Bane Jr
At this stage I feel like I could also sit down with that dude from SoftBank and convince him to give me money😪… Thanks Dagogo,you keep us well informed.
Philipp Z.
Still a sad part of Germany’s economy story. It was the tech hope in Europe and the most loved stock in Germany. Truely sad that it hat to end how it ended.
Jin Nani
Another great video! Your next book needs to be about finance!
AlphaCentauri24
So SoftBank’s Mayoshi Son is actually a complete tool who simply spreads his bets.
cubeincubes
People are so greedy they dont care who they hurt
State of Survival
I am sure I met Markus at some point. I remember Wirecard back in the early 2000’s at German Tech conferences…it’s a shame..at that time, they were the only company to do this for Europe instead of going through the hassle of using a US firm
iTeerRex
As soon as you said he bought such and so bank, that said it all. Made some money with tech, bought a bank, then applied “innovative” tricks. If you know about the monetary system, you know that there’s nothing right about it. Greed has take down every organization in history, here’s yet another one.
Andrew Salao
such a shame this happened really. I found it very convenient that their terminals were all over the place accepting cashless payments. now it’s a struggle for me to find them :”)
James Bond
Makes you wonder if these people go into business knowing they will defraud millions of people of their livelihoods, or does the theft literally just happen overnight . . . by accident without their knowledge?
Cars YoungtimerFreak
I’m always a bit puzzled when people like Jobs and Musk are put forward as big tech innovators. Please do not get me wrong I have huge admiration for the business acumen of both men. They are more then outstanding business men who can see opportunities when no one else can. But… that is something totally different from technical innovations. Apple did not invent the windows interface, Xerox did. Yet Jobs did understand the power of it, yet he failed to understand the power of Ethernet – also a Xerox invention at the same time. I would argue Apple’s biggest innovation was the iPod. That really was a game changer for the music industry. Same goes for Tesla. EVs were with us around the turn of the century, that is 19th to 20th century. Main problem then: batteries. And, when you’re honest, the battery/charge time still is the major challenge around EVs. Yet Musk succeeded in making EVs sexy and desirable. No minor feat, yet business oriented and not technology oriented.
wmv
I GOT AN AD BY A LAW FIRM TELLING ME TO CONTACT THEM FOR A CLASS ACTION LAW SUIT AGAINST WIRECARD IN THE MIDDLE OF THE VIDEO 😂😂😂😂
Arno Nymous
without doubt one of the best channels and content on yt. appreciate you!
X Y Z
$2B missing is indeed accurate. Where it went? Most definitely stashed in some private bank account in you know where…
Pratik Vyas
Dagogo, ur study n journalism is beyond satisfaction. U R EPIC!!!!
HiImMiggy
Really love your content, man!
Angela Hsiao
Reasonable people: I think something is fishy with Wirecard’s financials Wirecard: YOU’RE JUST TRYING TO SHORT SELL US. ARREST THAT MAN!
aqualifiedcritic
As a German I would like point out several things about the story: Yes Wirecard was one of only a few successfull tech companies of the last decades in Europe but it wasn’t glorified amongst the population. People engaged in Finance of course knew about it and when it climbed up the different stock exchange indexes of Germany more people got to know it but the company and Markus Braun where not really hailed in any way. People who knew about the company and his work were proud of him but to the majority of people both were practically unknown(just to prevent further comparisons to Steve Jobs). KPMG weren’t the first to find mistakes in the books. Two years before E&Y checked the books and also found some mistakes but did not refuse to sign the books(this was in 2018) for the BaFin in order to get another job for the next year. One thing is also quite important because you have to understand what the BaFin is: It is a governmental surveillance agency for companies involved in financial services. It has some standards you have to comply to in order to get/maintain a license for the german market. The BaFin knew about mistakes but only send one(!) employee(probably because of great lobbyism) to check on it and this employee could of course not stay up to this task. At this point KPMG refused to sign anything related to the company in order to prevent them from damages. One major point of the critics of Wirecard is the growth of the company. Normally in german companies at a certain size you are dividing the company into diffrent departments like HR, R&D, Sales, Accounting etc. This did not happen in they way it should have. Especially when dividing the company into this departments every department head and sometimes also higher middle management gets different variations of a POA in order to be able to make decisions for themselves. Markus Braun did not do this with Wirecard, if on purpose is unclear till today but it helped him maintain control of the accounting department because his signature was often needed for a lot of taks to be completed and he used this power in order to cut off tasks that might damage him/the company. Also the former COO(the one who vanished) is accused of working together with the Russian secret service for some reason. These are not accusations out of revenge or anything but these links were researched and published by major german news papers/TV stations. If you have trouble undstanding what I’m trying to say just let me know.
The Analytical Menace
So basically, Wirecard is like the new age version of Enron. Strange how history repeats itself.
General Alduin
Soft bank: “so, why should we give you money?” CEO: “well, I wear a turtlen-“ Soft bank: “say no more.”
S Godil
I love cold fusion Keep up the good work!
PKP
i am now addicted to your channel bro, the story telling and the background music are simply sublime
Sweeping Time
I used to see Wirecard devices all the time in the hotel I worked at. Eerie to think that I’ve been helping in a global financial scam.
michael Smith
Can you do a video on steinhoff. It’s known as the Enron of South Africa and Africa for how big they were globally and how the accounting scandals hurt the accounting industry in South Africa from being number one in the world to 7 Th
Funmilayo Tijani
Softbank needs to implement due diligence in selecting companies they invest in. Uber, We Work, Wirecard… They can’t keep investing in companies based on growth alone, there needs to be a clear path to profitability.
Odin's Playground
How was this really a “tech company?” How did they claim to “innovate”? It just seemed like a payment method, which are are tons of already? Curious to why this was believed to at all be competitive or something new.
TheLoneTerran
Hurting pensioners and regular citizens like that just singes my hair in anger. Scam the big companies, the ones that lie, cheat, and steal for every penny. Cheat the hedge fund people that use the economy as their own personal slot machine, don’t hurt the little guy.
davethetrousers
Great video. One thing: Almost all Germans born since around 1960 do speak English. If you’re talking a tech company (fraudulent or not) it’s safe to assume everyone could speak English quite well. So, changing the “company language to English” wouldn’t have been that big of a deal.
Kevin Pedersen
imagine getting away with a scam for 20 years
KEK Freedom Heritage
Good info. Nice overall videos. Keep up the good work.
HardTrail Rider
“Bank robbery is acts of amateurs … Real professionals will set up a Bank itself”..
Yt
This channel literally deserves more than 10 million subscribers they can do this anything just to teach us new things I also upload videos like this 😃 I am your biggest fan 😃 Your channel is insane 😲
Sturm Kintaro
I watch this video at 2x speed, and the Bloomberg interview with Braun is amazing.
⸻̆̈⸻̆̈⸻̆̈⸻̆̈ᙎᓿᖇᙍᗫ ᒪᗅᓿᘉ⸻̑̈⸻̑̈⸻̑̈⸻̑̈
Fun fact, I get ads on your video for a class action lawsuit against wirecard
Riley Samuel
The amount of investigative journalism that cold fusion does makes me so fucking great full.
locklear308
Still to this day it’s videos like these, historical situations like these, that are the exact reason I say that magic internet money and magic investment money just shouldn’t even be a thing. Only trust physical objects with physical value.
Marc Newton
Called Wirecard’s failure 5 years ago, having worked with its merchant payment system, there was nothing innovating or reliable about it’s systems at all, it was crude and dated, attempts to modernise was a shambles. There where a few other bad indicators and evidence in my eyes that most of its operations was manual/analogue. Wirecard had fallen way behind the likes of PayPal, Stripe & Mollie.
Namyx_
Love your work Dagogo, but I had no idea who you were talking about the entire video until I looked into the comment section. 😀 Jan Marsalek (Maršálek – Czech) is not an equivalent of French ‘Jean’. It’s rather pronounced Yan MarSHAalek (capital letters = stress). It’s probably very obscure knowledge as he was born in Austria.
FPM PAK
Great job done, weldone coldfusion
Felix Seiler
Im from munich. I have a lot of friends working there, still. Unanimous verdict: Scam from the start
huntressvideos
I didn’t know that Softbank was also involved in this. To have been duped so many times is really quite a feat.
Tevin Archuleta
I want a Cold Fusion Netflix show. Someone give this man a bag
John Gerard Tinio
I am from the Philippines working in Fintech and I can honestly say I have never heard of WireCard here in PH before this video; If there was $2 Billion here in PH it would be all over the news here
Ismail ‘Nye’ Yusof
Every time a person comes up talking fast about his success and boasting about his use of the latest technology without much physical evidence of whatever they have, it’s time to beware. Look at how they handle difficult questions whether they deflect or whether they can point to real success and do so without losing their cool.
Joachim Peer
Writing damning articles about a company and then sell it is called “market manipulation”, not short selling.
Mujahidul Islam Riad
Wow…looks like softbank can’t just stop investing in disastrous startups
D S R
Ernst and Young have a lot to answer for, as it’s them who signed off on the accounts for several years without questioning anything.
Paul
imagine, you’re living peacefully as a retired man, someone knocked on the door and asks, “is this the wirecard office?”
Isssma / イシュマエル
Wirecard: Uses latest artificial intelligence. Also wirecard: uses excel spreadsheets Me: sounds accurate.
Fox
Before the fall I used to hear about wirecard so often but never really understood what’s so special about them/how they made big money despite the hype
Mirko Stanic
If analysts let happen a decade of frauds with this company, it means that there are many more out there that haven’t been caught! Big money makes big secrets.
form76
One suggestion: when you put videos, you must also put dates , to understand the video and provide context.
DawnFreeze
Amazing work as always.
Douglas Neves
I freaking love ColdFusion
Jono
Another good video Dagogo, keep it up!
Funny Videos - Funny Out Loud
Lesson learnt from the last couple of videos regarding fraud: “Winner’s Bias” of successful investors of the past decade/s is a deadly and risky pillar to rely on!
Alan Dantey
Sad but true 💔 it’s only common people who suffer such scammers evil doing while they walk Scott free
Ryan
Phenominal content as always!!!!! Thumbs up. From the UK, never hesrd of the company!
Ant Man
Happens to the best of us, yesterday I was also missing my 2 billions. Luckily found it in the drawer again.
Vladsnipe11
“How One Man Fooled all of Germany” Hang on I’ve see this one before
Top Ramen
Also love the style of your thumbnails. Very professional
Felipe Cruz
Thanks man, your content is amazing.
Sim Il-Kung
The funny thing is: Braun and a couple of the other executives of Wirecard are actually Austrian. …as an Austrian-German in Germany, I have the impression that most Austrians who become famous in Germany do so by doing something very stupid.
OfficeKing
Wirecard was founded for adult entertainment and gambling payment. Markus Braun was their former consultant from KPMG and Jan Marseilek (never finished high school) were a dude that knew WAP-programming. Wirecard was brought to stock by a back door listing (bought a bancrupt company). And even in their early history a lot of questionable things happend.
Michael Scarn
Dude’s reply to serious questions are just borderline delusional. How could people kept giving him me escapes me
Nauman Ali
This is the type of content I pay my internet bills for!
scoots
He failed just short of issuing the card to save the whole company, the Enron Gold card.
K O
Missed one point… several of the regulator agents were also speculating on wirecard’s share price. Textbook conflict of interest and moral hazard.
Michael Moorrees
Steve Jobs would have been a fraud, too. He was lucky, and Apple actually has engineers who designed products that work. At least work good enough.
Solid Snake1019
A common theme i’ve seen in both this man and Elizabeth holmes is that not only do they want to be Steve Jobs but lack the understanding what made Steve, Steve. There’s many, but the main thing they don’t understand is that they do not understand. Steve wanted to master the information and understand it the best he could. He wasn’t afraid to say he didn’t know something because it meant he could learn. Admitting he was wrong is a different story altogether, but regardless, these people tried to hide behind a facade of buzzwords and self-image. It’s amazing to me to see them worship him as a deity and yet fail to recognize why he was able to do what he did.
John Cate
When one man fools all of Germany and all that happens is $2 billion in nonexistent profits, that’s a massive improvement over the last time it happened!
97illiniman
I want this man to deliver my eulogy
andydsm
Longtime subscriber here, absolutely love your content Dagogo 🙂 Please consider making an episode about Revolut.
V Sohn
You can always count on E&Y to turn a blind eye on your fudged books. The top accounting firm to retain if you are cooking your books. I have seen a lot of tech posers speak gobbledygook made up with the latest techno buzzwords, especially in brand promotion industry.
Zurr
Invisibilia has an episode called “Trust Fall” which is about a guy who was psychologically attacked, ostensibly by Wirecard, after he tried to reveal some of their shady practices.
Oassimer Remissao
Another dent in the myth of german efficiency and reliability. I hope the Brandenburg airport debacle and the Wirecard scandal are just isolated incidents. When things go south in Germany, they go south fast.
Malvinder kaur
these games are of financial loopholes and the ones who are cunning in it. they do it all under the very so called rules regulations but know how to bend or work within in it.
David Palmer
Very good reporting. You are doing a great job…
Isabella Rhoslyn
it also raises questions about investment banks like softbank that is now involved in two of your huge fraud videos… and it makes me question corporations in general and how companies like apple and amazon could possibly actually have the trillion dollar valuation and billions in cash reserves they are said to have…how many corporations we trust and respect are actually frauds or shells or fake in some way.
Thundergear007
man kind of unlucky you uploaded this today just today news were released that the chief of the asian branch Christopher B. who was kind of the right hand man of Jan Masalek (mentioned at 13:57) suspiciously died i would love more input on that
Mecha Martini
The financial regulatory firms are too corrupted to possibly see another case like this in the future. These cases are criminal and not everyone are criminals, therefore there are few like these but does the utmost harm to many innocents. I suggest and recommend that the regulatory firms be AI driven than human driven to reduce corruption as a whole.
Joghurt2499
For those who speak German: there is a great eight episode podcast called “Wirecard: 1,9 Milliarden Lügen” by Süddeutsche Zeitung, detailing the downfall of Wirecard. I’m not hugely into real crime but I really enjoyed that one.
Artisan restorations
Dagogo!!! Love all your videos!! Great learning and watching 🤔🧐
Kanti Kuijk
I’m really curious what the real in-depth story was behind the Lernout & Hauspie fraud/scandal
 
meistarkus
Marsalek is also somehow involved in a big government scandal here in austria involving the far right wing party FPÖ. It’s actually impressive how deep this rabbit hole goes in austria… sad but fascinating
Mutebi Bashir
What’s up with SoftBank 🙄. Investing in fraud companies 😂
Box Fan
Longest wait between new videos!!! It seemed like forever, it wasn’t so bad when I was still bing watching your old ones to fill in the space. . .
paul Z
I honestly don’t get this one. They were apparently a secure payment service (like PayPal) and became so big that they opened their own line of credit cards (like PayPal) so what went wrong?
JJ C
excelent video again. as always. keep it up!
African Biographics
Always look forward to your videos, thanks Dagogo
wazza33racer
when people lie to steal these quantities of money, they need to face really serious penalties, not just jail time.
josii
Someone needs to make a serious investigation into softbank… maybe they’re just ridiculously naive, but I feel like there’s something fishy about them.
SirKenchalot
OK, from now on, if you see anyone wearing a black turtle-neck, withdraw your money and run!
Gnarfledarf
This video is missing some crucial information: Two days before former German chancellor Merkel’s visit to China, in which she advertised for Wirecard, she had a meeting with former economy minister zu Guttenberg, who lobbied for Wirecard. Also, current German chancellor Scholz, who just happened to have been finance minister during the whole Wirecard ordeal (AKA responsible for Bafin), is denying all responsibility.
Andy Peek
You would think after what happened to Barings bank the regulatory authorities would been more watchful of this kind of business. How many pensioners lost money this time?
Stefan NEWELS
Thank You for that very well made summary!
htao06
Probably the biggest Accounting Scandal of 2020. Can you do a video on Lehman Brothers?
 
Lost on the tube
Thanks bro.Need to find some quick resume about the scandal.You did it really well. Peace.
lootster
I’ll be wary of the next CEO that wears a turtle neck top
love&peace
10:08 I’m confused. So aside from 3rd party companies profits (commissions) that were non-existent, that means they didn’t make any profit from their core business in Europe?
Abhishek mandge
This is an amazing one!!! Please include date and time of events and form a timeline!!
Elyseon
Well, Jobs was a fraud too, so I guess it makes sense for all the frauds to try to imitate his style.
Krister Knutars
We had the Webgiro debacle in Sweden around 2001-2003. Similar story.
Politicriminalwatch of Adam Coleman
Can you say, “European Enron?” Got to watch the watchers like Arthur Andersen should have as they were the 2nd biggest tragedy from Enron having lost their decades old reputation and sent several thousand employees into the unemployment lines
Phil VN
Dude. That was like last month!! I’m so used to your videos being like the 90’s or 2000s
yeeboy217
really well made, thanks Dagogo
Paul Garrish
With every one of these cases of massive fraud, the point of auditors, regulators and ratings agencies must get questioned. They seem to be a total waste of time (at best) and no small part of the problem. About time they (auditors and ratings agencies) were forced to be financially independent from the firms they are supposedly checking on
Roman Glomb
the only hope in Germany in the Fintech Business turned out to be a giant mafia-like scam…
Fidele Poh
The lesson is never let SoftBank invest in your company
ALEKSANDAR Ilic
All ship employees of Royal Caribbean group have received their paycheck through Wirecard. We have had numerous attempts from someone to “hack” our accounts by sending us emails. We were furious about how does anyone outside the company have our private emails. This explains all.
Scyther Pokemo
Never heard of this company/payment instrument here in PH
darren test
Togogo you have to remember that people who want to be successful follow those who were successful… There is that saying “Fake it until you make it” which is really subjective on the results that you get when you practice it.