RepRisk case study
Wirecard

# How the fraud investigation unfolded

# July 2020

Wirecard AG (Wirecard) was founded in Germany in 1999 and established itself as one of the first providers of digital payment processing solutions. In 2018, Wirecard became the fourth most valuable company in the German financial sector and joined the blue-chip DAX 30 stock market index as its market value reached EUR 22.5 billion (USD 25.3 billion).

Despite Wirecard’s seemingly meteoric rise in the German fintech market, journalists and short-sellers repeatedly raised questions about the company’s money laundering compliance checks and its accounting practices.

In March 2010, Market Watch, an online stock market news source, cited the FBI’s finding that Wirecard’s subsidiary Wirecard Bank facilitated the transfer of USD 5.7 million in illegal online gambling proceeds into the US in 2009. The Munich prosecutors confirmed that they had been notified of the allegation.