The journalist who took down a billion-dollar company

Lives Less Ordinary

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.6 • 814 Ratings

🗓️ 30 December 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dan McCrum investigated a story at Wirecard that had him fearing for his safety.

British journalist Dan McCrum usually writes about businesses for the London-based newspaper, the Financial Times. In 2014 he got a tip off alleging there were so-called gangsters behind a much-feted German company called Wirecard. The company had started small, taking care of the technical part of processing online payments. But by the time Dan starting looking into it, it was entering the big league. And what he discovered took him into unchartered territory: of international spies, underworld deals and fraud on a massive scale.

The chief executive Markus Braun was arrested in 2020 and is now on trial in Germany. He denies all charges against him and says he himself was deceived.

At the request of Germany, Interpol issued a red notice for the arrest of Wirecard’s former Chief Operating Officer, Jan Marsalek. He is believed to have fled to Russia.

Dan's written a book about his investigation called Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth.

Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Jo Impey Editor: Munazza Khan

Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp: 0044 330 678 2784

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to quickly tell you about some others.
0:05.1	My name's Andy Martin and I'm the editor of a team of podcast producers at the BBC in Northern Ireland.
0:11.3	It's a job I really love because we get to tell the stories that really matter to people here,
0:16.2	but which also resonate and apply to listeners around the world.
0:19.6	And because the team has such a diverse
0:21.1	range of skills and strengths, we have trained journalists, people who love digging through
0:25.9	archives, we've got drama and even comedy experts. We really can do those stories justice. So if you
0:31.9	like this podcast, head to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more fascinating stories from all around the UK.
0:38.8	You know you've got a big story because you hit publish and then you almost throw up.
0:46.9	I was thinking, am I being followed?
0:50.1	I would do things like check the bushes outside my house for cameras at night.
0:55.9	I would stand on the tube and then wait until the beeps just before the doors closed
1:00.7	and only then would sort of hop out onto the platform.
1:03.4	Look around. Does anybody followed me off?
1:06.7	It was that level of paranoia that you're genuinely thinking.
1:09.7	I think these guys are out to get me.
1:15.4	Dan McCrum really wasn't ready for this, for this world of spies and stings. His was the much more sedate world of writing about businesses for the London newspaper, the Financial Times, the FT.
1:29.8	But then this firm that he was reporting on wasn't an ordinary business.
1:35.4	And he was left fighting for his career and fearing for his safety.
1:43.0	I'm Joe Fidgen from the BBC World Service. This is Lives Less Ordinary.
1:51.1	So this starts in 2014. Dan was looking around for a new story and chatting with one of his
1:57.0	contacts, who was the manager of a hedge fund. And he just says to me, would you be interested in some German gangsters?
	...

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