The company at the center of Germany’s 2020 accounting scandal was Wirecard.
Wirecard was a German payments processor that had grown rapidly and was promoted as a technology success story. Its reported business included card-payment processing and partner operations in countries where it claimed to have substantial activity.
In June 2020, Wirecard admitted that €1.9 billion supposedly held in trustee accounts probably did not exist. The revelation destroyed confidence in its published accounts, and the company filed for insolvency shortly afterward. Markus Braun, its longtime chief executive, was arrested and later faced trial.
The scandal is often confused with an ordinary banking failure. Wirecard did operate regulated financial businesses, but the central issue was the alleged falsification of financial information and the missing cash. The collapse also led to intense criticism of auditors, regulators and Germany’s financial oversight system.