Wirecard: how to find a €2bn hole
The Story of Money
Manuela Saragosa
4.4 • 400 Ratings
🗓️ 14 July 2020
⏱️ 25 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In September 2014, the FT’s Dan McCrum received a tip about a fast-growing German fintech group, Wirecard. Over the next couple of years Dan and his colleagues uncovered the secret behind the payment company’s meteoric growth: many of the customers listed in company documents did not exist. In this episode Dan tells the story of the whistleblowers, shoe-leather reporting, hacking, suspected surveillance and legal threats that led to Wirecard’s downfall.
---
Review clips: CNBC, Deutsche Welle
Further reading:
The double life of Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek https://www.ft.com/content/511ecf86-ab40-486c-8f76-b8ebda4cc669
Inside Wirecard
Dan’s 2015 story for Alphaville
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/04/27/2127427/the-house-of-wirecard/
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Am I missing anything? Is this the right decision? |
| 0:02.0 | Could it be a alternative? |
| 0:04.0 | Am I too late? |
| 0:05.0 | Find clarity in your investment decision-making. |
| 0:08.0 | Manage your portfolio for sustainable growth |
| 0:11.0 | and regulatory alignment |
| 0:12.0 | with the ultimate blend of powerful AI and |
| 0:14.6 | industry expertise. |
| 0:16.5 | Reduce risk, meet your sustainability goals and push the boundaries of possibilities based on |
| 0:21.1 | facts, not opinions. |
| 0:23.0 | Clarity AI scaling human decisions through tech. |
| 0:26.6 | Visit clarity. |
| 0:27.7 | AI and take action today. |
| 0:29.8 | We were concerned about hacking |
| 0:34.0 | we were concerned about protecting our sources |
| 0:39.0 | into some of the allegations because investors have stopped |
| 0:42.0 | Mark had been claiming to do business with companies which either didn't exist or simply |
| 0:47.3 | cease to exist. |
| 0:48.3 | There's been a fresh report from the EFT. |
| 0:50.7 | They're talking about half of your worldwide revenue and almost all of your |
| 0:55.2 | reported profits effectively coming from three opaque partner companies. |
| 1:00.8 | This address which had been listed as the headquarters of an international |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Manuela Saragosa, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Manuela Saragosa and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.