Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard

Having watched the Wirecard: A Billion Euro Lie Sky documentary earlier this year, I was interested to see how this James Erskine Netflix piece deviated from the original.

I'm pleasantly surprised as it takes an entirely different viewpoint, focusing mostly on the journalists, short sellers and MPs, rather than the former doc covering the whistleblowers and other influential parties.

What ensues is an interesting value-add to the Wirecard story that helps to elevate the already thrilling saga of accounting fraud. The focus on Dan McCrum and team adds flavour to the narrative that was missing in the Billion Euro Lie doc. I do wish the whistleblowers were interviewed at the same extent however - though I imagine this may have been down to pre-existing agreements that would conflict.

Overall, well worth a watch, and I'll await the third instalment of this documentary battle, coming from Amazon Prime, where they finally get Jan Marsalek to show his face.

If you want to know the reason why people hate short sellers this film will give you a good idea. The cartoon character in his Cannes pile bemoaning what he didn't make by literally doing nothing is a perfect example. Their's, and the journalists glee at bringing down a company that employed thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands of investors, is quite hard to stomach. No doubt the company was dodgy to say the least but neither party were working for the good of mankind. The short sellers thinking only of the profit to be made by destroying the business, and the journalists revenge for having the tables turned on them. As a film it's well made and if you don't know the story worth the effort, personally I can't get over the unsurpassed delight at seeing the business fail.

All credit to Dan and the FT management for staying with a story even the German financial authorities tried to kill. Tenacious research and following of leads in Asia and Europe inspite of threats legal and otherwise reveals a real life financial scandal at one of Germanys largest companies. Fascinating insight into the world of short sells - not a very attractive bunch outside of two focuses American ladies who with others help lift the thick veil of secrecy of the fraudsters. Beats most financial dramas into small corner and makes you aware of the abilities of a determined fraudster to nearly make it even the German chancellor 'supported the company. Great insight into the talent and doggedness of a journalist never prepared to give up and of an editor prepared to take huge risks to get the story.

I had read about the reports that Dan McCrum published in the FT concerning Wirecard's nefarious activities, but didn't know the intricate details apart from the fact that he was put under immense pressure to retract his accusations both by Wirecard themselves (using lawyers and spooks), and by the German financial authorities.

This excellent documentary shows just how far the German authorities went to protect Wirecard because it was a home grown FinTech success story which blinded them to the fact that it was committing fraud on a massive scale.

The information I didn't know was how Russia was involved and why the company was founded in the first place.

Absolutely amazing documentary which shows just how far Russia had infiltrated into the German financial system, and I can guess into the London financial system too.

... well not Benjamins, since it is German (european) money ... but you get what I am trying to recreate ... so no pun intended. The documentary is very well researched ... and who would have thought that the Germans are able to run a scheme like that.

A current president would probably pardon them all - if the crimes were committed in his land ... just saying. The brazenness was only possible, because no one thought that they would be ... well so brazen. Also Germany ... many here apparently felt that the country itself was being attacked when reporters were trying to uncover the truth.

Wild story for sure ... where is that mattress to put your money in you may be thinking ... well hopefully not as bad as that ... money needs to keep flowing.