A German fintech darling whose €1.9 billion in cash turned out not to exist; it collapsed in 2020, and COO Jan Marsalek vanished.
Born
1999 CE
Died
2020 CE
Lived
21 years
Dead for
6 yrs
At its peak
Peak market cap over €24 billion; DAX 30 member (2018)
Cause of death
Overreach
The Obituary
Wirecard, founded in Germany in 1999 and headquartered in Aschheim near Munich, rose to become the country’s fintech champion, processing payments worldwide and joining the elite DAX 30 index in 2018 at a valuation above €24 billion. For years the Financial Times reported on suspicious accounting, met with denials and regulatory hostility toward the journalists. In June 2020 auditor EY refused to sign off because €1.9 billion supposedly held in trust accounts could not be found — it likely never existed. Wirecard filed for insolvency days later. CEO Markus Braun was arrested; COO Jan Marsalek vanished and remains a fugitive.
Worth remembering
It joined Germany's prestigious DAX 30 index in 2018, briefly worth over €24 billion.
COO Jan Marsalek fled and remains an international fugitive; CEO Markus Braun was arrested.
Gallery
Wirecard AG headquarters building at Einsteinring 35, Aschheim near Munich, photographed in 2019Leo Molatore · CC BY-SA 2.0Wirecard AG headquarters in Aschheim near Munich, February 2019Kaethe17 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Watch
Wirecard and the missing €1.9bn, by the FT reporter who broke it — Financial Times
Sources
Wirecard, a German payments company, collapsed into insolvency in June 2020 after admitting €1.9 billion in cash on its books likely did not exist Wikipedia
The Financial Times reported on accounting irregularities at Wirecard for years before the 2020 collapse Wikipedia
Wirecard replaced Commerzbank in the DAX index on September 24, 2018, with a market capitalisation of around €24 billion and a share price approaching €200; when insolvency proceedings were filed on June 25, 2020, all five lines of corporate oversight—internal controls, supervisory board, external auditor EY, financial reporting enforcement, and regulator BaFin—had failed to catch the fraud. Oxford Law Blogs (University of Oxford)
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
