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Berlin (dpa) - Showdown in the Wirecard committee: With the testimony of Economics Minister Peter Altmaier, the investigative committee is entering what is probably the biggest accounting scandal in post-war history.
The CDU politician is questioned because his ministry is responsible for the audit supervision Apas.
The Apas are accused of negligence in the scandal surrounding the alleged fraud of Wirecard billions.
The MPs now want to know from Altmaier why the Ministry of Economic Affairs was not more involved in the matter.
Apas supervises auditors in Germany.
In the Wirecard case, EY auditors had approved financial statements for years and are confronted with the accusation of not looking closely enough.
Apas only intervened in May 2020 - a few weeks before the now insolvent former Dax group Wirecard admitted a balance sheet hole of 1.9 billion euros.
The Munich public prosecutor assumes that the company has shown fictitious profits since 2015.
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The scandal has already had consequences for the auditor oversight: Your boss was dismissed after admitting to the investigative committee that he had privately traded in shares in the scandalous company while the oversight authorities scrutinized the Wirecard auditors.
The committee of inquiry has been questioning witnesses for about six months to uncover whether the fraud scandal could have been prevented at a political level.
In addition to Altmaier, Digital State Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) will testify on Tuesday.
In 2018, she is said to have tried to arrange a meeting between ex-Wirecard boss Marcus Braun and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU).
However, the meeting did not take place.
In the course of the week, top-class witnesses are expected: On Wednesday, in addition to Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD), State Secretary of State for Finance Jörg Kukies in particular.
The opposition considers his role in the Wirecard case to be particularly questionable.
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Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) was invited as a witness on Thursday.
His finance ministry is responsible for the financial supervision Bafin, which also did not cut a good figure in the Wirecard scandal.
At the climax, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) will testify on Friday.
She had campaigned for Wirecard during a trip to China - at a time when at least critical media reports about Wirecard were already known.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210420-99-270987 / 2