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Berlin (dpa) - In the accounting scandal surrounding the former Dax group Wirecard, there were indications of irregularities years before the bankruptcy, according to a partner of the auditor EY.
In connection with the Wirecard business in India, he saw “red flags”, ie dubious indications of inconsistencies, said the forensic expert from the auditing company on Thursday in the Bundestag's investigative committee.
He had drawn attention to this information.
Nevertheless, the auditors did not go into it.
They would have certified the annual financial statements anyway.
Forensic experts are examiners who use criminalistic methods.
The 45-year-old said that the “red flags” appeared in the course of a special audit on the India business.
Since he did not actually work as an auditor, he could not assess whether his information was sufficient to intervene or not.
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According to the Green finance politician Danyal Bayaz, the forensic scientist heavily incriminated his colleagues from EY with this statement. "There is strong evidence that risks have not been adequately identified and adequately assessed," he said. The certificates of the EY auditors now looked "even more questionable than it was already the case". Before the Wirecard bankruptcy in June 2020, auditors from EY had approved the Group's balance sheets for years and are now faced with the accusation of not looking closely enough.
The Wirecard case is considered to be the biggest accounting scandal of the German post-war period: a suspected billions in fraud with damage to thousands of small investors.
In the summer of last year, 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.
A former lawyer for the scandal group also spoke in the committee of inquiry.
He denied allegations that serious blackmail allegations in the case were fictitious.
That “was not limited to a robber pistol,” said the man from Munich.
He received information on very specific dates, figures and people.
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The lawyer had reported to the Munich public prosecutor in 2019 that Wirecard was being blackmailed from the media industry.
As a result, the financial supervisory authority Bafin banned bets on falling prices at Wirecard - which many investors interpreted as a sign that everything was okay with the scandalous group despite critical media reports.
According to the MPs, the alleged fraud of billions was only uncovered much later.
He had passed on his information about the extortion "because it was my job as a representative of someone who was injured at the time in a market manipulation procedure," said the lawyer.
He was not involved in the decision to prohibit short sales.
The Munich-based reported that his contacts at Wirecard were CEO Markus Braun, top manager Jan Marsalek and chief legal counsel Andrea Görres.
He was deceived by Marsalek and by Braun too, he said - but not by Görres.
Braun is now in custody, Marsalek is on the run.
Both are accused of being largely responsible for the alleged billion-dollar fraud at Wirecard.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210506-99-497631 / 2