Risk register · entry
Q-F · FraudWirecard
A DAX champion's audited escrow balances were forgeries.
The fifth quadrant, where the thing was never real. The tell is that the story is too clean.
Why this quadrant
Either the 1.9 billion euros was in the Philippine escrow accounts or it was not. That question has one answer, and it went unasked for years, through a Financial Times investigation and a place in the DAX. When BDO and BPI said the documents were not theirs, the company had about a week left.
The record
- €1.9 billion reported missing / fabricated cashcertain
- Wirecard peak market value approx. €24 billion (2018, DAX era)likely
- Insolvency filing date: 25 June 2020certain
- Markus Braun arrested 22 June 2020, released on €5 million bail 23 June, re-arrested 22 July 2020certain
- FT first published its Wirecard investigation 30 January 2019likely
- Philippine banks (BDO Unibank, BPI) disclaimed the escrow documents on/around 16-18 June 2020likely
- German court ordered Braun and two other ex-executives to pay €140 million in damages to the insolvency administrator (ruling reported late 2024/early 2025)likely
- Braun faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted on all charges; criminal trial (started December 2022) still without a verdict as of mid-2026certain
- Jan Marsalek fled to Belarus after his dismissal and remains on Europol's most-wanted listlikely
- Wirecard joined the DAX 30 in September 2018, replacing Commerzbanklikely
Sources
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