Wirecard’s ex-CEO Marcus Braun arrested in Germany

Bloomberg

Wirecard AG’s former chief executive officer was arrested by Munich prosecutors after $2.1 billion went missing from the digital-payment company, in a scandal that has rattled Germany’s financial industry.
Markus Braun, who resigned last week, was arrested in Munich as part of a probe into the company’s accounting practices, prosecutors said.
The company is fighting for survival after acknowledging that funds probably don’t exist, deepening its accounting woes. The payment processor said it’s in discussions with creditors and is considering a full-scale restructuring after pulling its financial results for fiscal 2019 and first quarter of 2020.

Previous descriptions of its business with third parties, which process transactions on Wirecard’s behalf, were “not correct,” according to the company.
In less than a week, the fintech company once hyped as the future of German finance has lost most of its market value.
“It’s a complete disaster we’re looking at,” said Felix Hufeld, head of BaFin, Germany’s top financial regulator, at a panel discussion Monday. “It’s a shame that something like that happened.”