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Berlin (dpa) - Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) thanks the investigative journalist Dan McCrum for his educational work on the Wirecard scandal.

McCrum made the dodgy business practices of the Munich-based payment service provider public with his persistent reporting for the British newspaper "Financial Times".

Scholz is to give the laudation to McCrum, who receives the German Reporter Award.

In his pre-recorded video message, Scholz called McCrum a “scout in the best history of press freedom” and his reports on Wirecard a “milestone in investigative journalism”.

The former Dax group Wirecard, which is now insolvent, admitted air bookings of 1.9 billion euros in June and subsequently filed for bankruptcy.

The Munich Public Prosecutor's Office assumes that the company has shown fictitious profits since 2015 and is investigating commercial gang fraud.

Scholz is under political pressure because the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) reports to his ministry.

Critics accuse the Bafin of having failed controls.

Scholz now wants to equip the authority with more competencies.

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McCrum had already reported irregularities at Wirecard in 2015 and initiated investigations into the scandal at the former Dax group.

Because of his reports he came under criticism and also targeted by the Munich public prosecutor's office.

"I am glad that the public prosecutor's office has stopped the investigation and is now concentrating on the perpetrators," said Scholz.

With his reporting, McCrum has “made great contributions to the rule of law, our community and - and I want to say this very clearly here - also to Germany as a financial location”, said Scholz.

"Because for more than six years in detective work he pervaded complex relationships in which nothing was as it seemed."

Countless analysts, on the other hand, believed in Wirecard and told a success story, while auditors had no complaints for years.

"It is good that this is now being investigated and clarified in a parliamentary committee of inquiry."

The German Reporter Prize has been awarded by the journalist network Reporter Forum for twelve years.

It is not endowed and is intended to fuel debates about quality in journalism.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 201207-99-606794 / 2