The Double Life of Wirecard’s Fugitive Executive
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- German payments company Wirecard was the darling of the nation's fintech industry. Then came the admission that almost $2 billion of the company’s funds had gone missing. The scandal led to the sudden disappearance of its chief operating officer, Jan Marsalek. With his mysterious links to the Austrian secret service and Russian mercenaries, Bloomberg investigates the role Marsalek allegedly played in one of Germany’s biggest accounting scandals.
#Storylines #BloombergBusinessweek #Wirecard
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Every time Germany or a German company is in deeply in trouble, an Austrian is not far.
bruh
as if germans were perfect...
What
Ich finds lustig xD
@@kianag6692 recht hat er... wir lernen auch nichts dazu
EY say they are victims? Man, it was your job to audit. I call bullshit.
Turtleneck = Check
Self inflated ego = Check
Scam = Check
he needs some red glasses and then it would be perfect
why every high level scammer always try look like steve jobs example : theranos
Hotel? Trivago
The FT story uncovering all this is so much more interesting. German state funded investigations into journalists in the UK for daring to suggest wire card was fraudulent.
This story would never ever had broken if it wasn’t for the FT.
Should've just named the company "Wirefraud."
that is what happens when an Austrian is the leader in Germany
Hahaha! This is gold
Underrated!!
@⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻ wow Bruder du bist ja unter jedem kommi hier, dir geht das wohl sehr nah das du kein vernünftiges Land hast oder wie?
... here we go again
It's interesting when Wirecard was hailed as a leader in Fintech. I live in Ireland and know people across Europe. I never heard of anyone using Wirecard. I heard they had great financial results but never of any customers using the service, makes sense now.
Wirecard offered B2B solutions for the most part, they rarely targeted end consumers directly. People used their services without knowing who or what Wirecard is.
@@porkcharsui Stripe and Square are B2B but a lot of people have heard of them. Seen their logo on small business websites for payment processing or used their contactless payment service. Never seen any business using wirecard.
@@kevclare Wirecard's approach was different. Their main service was pretty much to just secure payments for a (very) short period of time between whatever payment method a customer used and the money actually showing up in the account it was supposed to. This "guarantee" of the money being there is what clients paid for. I never saw their logo anywhere either but they had some pretty big clients before they went berserk.
They were very heavily used by key resale, adult, and online casinos. Anything high risk/ high chargebacks. Probably popular because they weren’t making a profit
Great quality short doc, well done! More of these please 👍
Shouldn't you be citing the Financial Times, in some capacity? They broke the story and did all the investigation.
6:26
Putin has so many people working for him in Germany. Govt should find out who's working for whom.
Haha. The company I work for pays us via wirecard (cruise ships with many international workers). They just changed their name to North Lane and carried on
Well, here is the thing, the culprits are not the owner of the wirecard, they are just directors.
So, how about the owners/shareholders?
So, after such scandal, the company, the management left behind, declare insolvency and selling its business in order to pay the debts and then paid the leftovers to owners.
And North Lane is just one unit of wirecard formerly known as Wirecard North America. If I'm not mistaken it's sold to company named syncapay.
Marsalek currently lives in Moscow under the protection of the Russian intelligence agency FSB. His connection with the FSB goes back to Libya and Syria.
Those Austrians can be quite ambitious, can’t they?
Looks like Jan and Jho Low (of Malaysia’s 1MDB infamy) is subscribing to the same hiding services. Somehow on the Interpol’s most wanted list, wanted in many countries but somehow with all the high tech in the world, we just cannot find them! Are they using barter trade to buy food now?
They can just have new passport or new id/nationality and then they can live happily ever after.
The Marsalek of Mexico was a Chinese pharmaceutical executive; however, his business interests wasn't fraud, it was chemicals! Guess for what?
I can’t wait for a deeper dive into this
I've noticed ANY company being super hyped by securities sales and media is always a scam. Always.
Doesn't matter who, what company, or where; they are always scams.
So Apple, Google, Facebook & Tesla (just to name a few) are all scams?
The problem with auditors is that often times most companies are legitimate that auditors eventually become lazy and complacent. This eventually leads to fraud companies to go under the radar. There should be a way to add new auditors and remove old ones to prevent this from happening.
How necessary was it to mention a Russian officer?
leonardo di caprio fits in this kind of movie directed by ? would be great
more cocain and it will be sweet
Here is some insight...most people working in medium to large companies don't have a clue as to why they do what they do.
Follow the Money! Follow the Electrons! Follow the electromagnetic energy!
Wirecard is just a child on cradle when compared to Indian Government's 2G Spectrum Scam and none is found guild and no idea where the money gone. What a crazy thing..!!!
10:06 ""In the basement, there was a huge locker with drugs: inside uppers, downers, stimulants"" In order to to illustrate it, they must have taken the first available photo from a photo bank with drugs and disinfectants manufactured in Russia
Jan just looks like a bad boy...LOL
What's the exchange rate of Euros to Rubles? Was it physical cash (euro banknotes) or just electromagnetic energy waves and electrons that were transferred; Did German luxury goods leave with the exit of Jan Marsalek? They must have been portable unless he controls a shipping and transit company!
The interesting thing was at least from 2008 people where posting on Wallstreet Online about how the books were cooked. Took a decade for it to be exposed.
well a few people and probably firms on Wall Street made a few billions from shorting wirecard stock when it went from 100 to 1 dollar . So turns out shorting isnt the worst thing on the planet as so many say now days lol
@@likemysnopp I don't know who is saying shorting is bad. Shorting works when your thesis and timing is right. Definitely didn't help people who shorted in 2008. From 2008-2018, the stock would go down and recover back up. If you shorted in 2019 after the FT news article. Then you hit goal.
@@RoneyThomas I honestly dont think anyone is shorting for 10 years 😂 but some did short fairly close to when they got caught finally. And I meant that some are mad at Melvin capital for shorting GME. They think its effecting GMEs business and makes the stock go down.. I doubt shorting makes the price go down
@@likemysnopp Stock prices are valued on supply and demand. By shorting a stock you raise the supply by selling (a large number of) stocks. This does require a high volume and a lack of demand. Thats why its usually combined with some concerning company news or pessimist analyst prediction. Now more investors start selling because of falling prices and/or fear of an uncertain future which makes the prices go down even further. Thats how it works.
@@eddy6959 no.. you lend out the stock you short to another person. In a promise of buying it back later. Also the shares on the market has already been sold by the company to the market. So the outstanding shares (the shares at the market) does not effect the company one bit
His new name is Alex Caruso and he plays for the LA Lakers
Why no one talks about the auditors is ridiculous, it is 100% their fault
This case reminds me of the Enron scandal in the US. Particularly the auditing firm that also failed to do it’s job-Arthur Andersen. After Enron execs were found guilty, their auditors were tried and charged with obstruction of justice for tampering with evidence linked to criminal conduct.
This goes deep .. ayo no home lol
just bought it im happy
EY has an easy job. Just rubber stamp everything and make big money.
seems that american payservices wanted to get rid of the german competitior wit the help of FT (mind that the chief editor of FT retired in 2020) and some dubios shortsellers in london and new york. reminds of Delaware wanting to get rid of competitors through this dubious taxhaven propaganda in europe.
Let's be honest here, this entire story is just another to be added to the long list of "Why the big 4 auditors are complete pointless bullshit".
NOT TRUE...Math is hard! You can't expect accountants to know how to use Excel or work with all those numbers....
well.. lawyers are technically pointless as well. So are many programmers. And especially cleaners and sales people of all kinds. There are a lot of jobs that are utter bullshit, but we gotta do something dont we.
I think you missed the point where they explained who discovered the fraud.
@@LHFX no I didnt. If you dont understand why the big 4s and other accountants are useful for the economy then you clearly dont understand the economy
@@likemysnopp First of all you don't understand how UA-cam comments work. First do that, then we can move to more complicated items :)
"The key player were Austrian"
Well well well, where have I heard that one before?
Totally inappropriate and my first thought at the same time
Also Germans trying to deflect their involvement.
His name on his passport is Jan Maršálek. I am sure he was not born in Austria. That is Czech name. He could not have so spelled name, if he was born in Austria.
@@jankoss6429 jan is common first name in czech.
What is "Austria" supposed to mean? Are they REPEAT OFFEDERS?
Client: Ok take a look at my books
KPMG: mmmmm but you are missing almost $2bil
Client: *HEY YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT*
😂😂😂
😂
We germans don't have luck with people from Austria 🤭
u invite the wrong ones, cause greedy^^
Oh come on. A baverian or a lowersaxon could have done it as well.
@@jonasklapper2875 and yet, it's always an austrian.
@@prysrek8858 What's with the prussian dude in WW1?
Or that swiss guy in the 30 years war?
It's not always the austrians. They have a fair share of germans leading germans into death.
@@jonasklapper2875 nope they dont have the reqired Charme and Schmäh. And i say this as an Austrian living in Germany.
I think the best fraud detector is "people acting like Steve Jobs", That one women with the fraudulent med diagnose tool, the wirecard guys... all imitating the apple guy.
And i think u should always check the supervisory board. If its a bunch of retards, but important names, stay away from that company.
Once again Germany is blamed for the actions of someone from Austria 🇦🇹
Build that wall! 🧱 😂
The German regulators were not at all inclined to investigate the company despite media reports. They attacked them instead. The German regulators failed.
@@lonyo5377 just like last time. SMH.
@@lonyo5377 A number of members of BaFin (Germany’s regulator) were found to have owned Wirecard stock pretty clear conflict of interest. So no wonder they were not that keen on investigating.....
Don‘t blame Austrians for the failure of german people/authorities etc... Interestingly these kind of things happen in Germany, not in Austria, France or Italy after all...
However it‘s quite funny yes 😅
How could something like this happen in developed markets like Germany? And EY needs to be investigated as well.
Its not like comparable stuff also happend in the US right?
conspiracy theory..they killed him to cover their asses
@@XBlomborX I'm from South Asia, this is not news if it happened in our region. But in EU?? Also even for us US is just another 3rd world country wearing a Gucci belt with nukes 🤣
Probably since much of its revenue was supposedly from the other side of the world
EY are more crooked than the people they audit.
I've been in the room with their 'auditors' many times - often straight out of Uni, no idea what they're doing and just following a script to tick a box. Ridiculous.
Recently been looking forward to these QuickTake mini-docs. Anyone have any other well-produced financial doc recommendations/channels?
Cold fusion, jake tran
Can you elaborate highly interested
I’d suggest ColdFusion as well.
CNBC
CNBC does some decent ones as well
That reporter looks a lot like him, could be mistaken for him easily. Lolll
That would probably be the best way to hide.
Plot twist. It is him
@@bishop6397 hiding in plain sight can be the best thing to do sometimes...
Welcome to Austria lol
😅😅😅😅😅😅
Ernst and Young only cares abouts its fees! As long as that is paid....they sign anything!
Any proof for your stupid thesis?
@@Orca-hp4zx Google is your friend.
@@jonz23m 🤦♂️
@@Orca-hp4zx yes they’re still operating and only receive fines. Unlike Arthur Anderson who went bust in a similar situation with Enron
10:04, He got plastic and reconstructive surgery in his house. That's what the left behind medical equipmentment was from.
That's an interesting perspective
A much more plausible explanation rather than them being able to clean up any and all evidence of such a surgery taking place except for the fucking bed is that it was used for people who overdosed on drugs at their parties.
@@dominokos i have a hypothesis that the bed was used to sleep.
@@JustTry919 Which my hypothesis does not exclude
Germany's Enron.
Lol that fake Goodfellas poster on the left at 9:50 with the heads of Putin, Trump, and Kim Jong Un hahahaha
These white-collar crimes don't make the people as angry as petty crimes do.
Usually because there's less violence involved I guess
Ppl pour their anger on petty crime because it usually happens closer to the victim.
This company's operations makes it the German equivalent of Enron.
Jeffrey Skilling Enron has been out of jail for two years now (his Texas buddies lobbied hard to get him out). Surprised TEXAS hasn't given him a consulting contract on the big freeze last week. He's "wicked smart", you know. This Austrian guy that has "disappeared". Wonder what his "bio" was. Skilling DID graduate from the Wharton School.
And yet Arthur Anderson went bust worldwide but EY still operating with minimal fines
After Enron bBig5 turned into Big4. Maybe nów it will be Big3?
Incredible to think at one stage Wirecard was valued more than Gamestop
You mean Melvin. Gamestop got bullied
Just a heads up. Its not Jan Marsalek but Jan Maršálek (both written form and pronounciation are different). Even though hes Austrian his surname is czech (it can be also seen on the passport in the video). And if you ask me the guy is hiding right here in Czech Republic. We have a saying: "Under the candlestick shadows are deepest." I think you can understand its meaning.
No, elaborate on the saying.
@@MassAveStriker Well it means pretty much the same as "hiding something in plain sight". It means that if you hide something in the first place everyone would look no one will bother even looking there because its "too obvious/dumb".
The Czech Republic is an EU member state and a participating member of the Schengen Information System, a Schengen-wide database referencing arrest warrants.
I get your "hiding in plain sight" reasoning thing, but I think it would be really dumb to hide somewhere where he could be found out by a simple road check. I get that with money you can get away from many a sticky situation, but there are just much better places on this planet.
Ye that's probably how your grandmother would put it , maybe it sounds cute and witty and in the right context there is even some truth to it, but that's very unlikely the mindset of Jan Maršálek. It is as clear as broad daylight he was planning his own escape for years on end so it is also crystal clear he needed to get away from the EU (Schengen) jurisdiction and go somewhere where he was granted immunity from prosecution. It's really that simple
@@glutamin111 People thought the same about Radovan Krejčíř. Look up how that one went.
Accounting firms, like EY, need to upgrade their auditing methods. The old fashioned way of checking books doesn't disclose frauds like this. They need to hire detective agencies who understand finance to uncover frauds like the ones in Asia in this case.
Looks like Jan was always on stand by, ready to vanish at a moment's notice while his colleague started to believe the lie.
Idk it kinda sounds like he just had the right friends to call up and be like "get me tf outta here"
Markus was dumb to not make similar friends with the business he was running though.
Russian intelligence officer 100%
I’m not sure exactly what it is that draws my interest but I’ve always found scams interesting, and this one doubly so. It has all the plot features of a Hollywood blockbuster. Great job Bloomberg!
Auditors were hired by the firm that they should investigate. No wonder they didn't see that coming!
All auditors are hired by the companies that they report on. Who else do you think should hire them, the government? Each audit costs several million dollars per year - the governments in these countries would pay billions of dollars per year in audits if they were to do so.
Auditor's are hire to protect the company and the sharesholders not the company director but sometimes the companies arrive to hide the clues or corrupt the audit firm
According to agency theory, a company has 2 parties, i.e. owners/shareholders and management/directors. With an assumption that both parties want to maximize their own wealth.
In order that to not happening, owners hire auditor. Normally, audit firm is chosen during general shareholders' meeting.
So, eventhough the company paid the fee, ideally the job of auditor is to assure that the report which the management produced is reflecting reality. By doing so, it helped owners to make a future decisions.
However, human are human. As nowadays, we can see corrupt policemen, judge, lazy doctors, etc. There will also be lazy auditors, corrupt auditors, etc.
The practice is not bad, as an investors, without auditor, there will be more uncertainty in financial report. If with a law and police, criminals are thriving, just imagine the world without law and police.
In addition, there are 2 audit firms involved in this case, EY and KPMG.
EY did a general audit, in which it audit all accounts in financial report.
KPMG hired to do investigative audit, with the focus to assure that a significant amount of revenue from those foreign countries are in fact exist.
And KPMG is the one found that those revenue did not exist. So the auditors hired to investigate it, successfully did the job.
The second time in history an Austrian guy screws Germans over big time
Wirecard also was protected by the german authorities in form of the BaFIn (basically the german SEC), when the FT articles first came out. Several investigations were launched into the FT authors and different short sellers because of suspected insider trading, and shorting the stock was prohibited for a bit. After the collapse there were hearings on these proceedings but just a lot of ''I dont remember'' from the officials in charge, including the secretary of the treasury, who now has a real chance of becoming the next german chancellor in a few weeks...
Surprising how much they're like a third world country when they get accused of fraud.
Ernst and Young also a victim of a complex criminal network, Their finance is more complex may as well similar than a criminal network its just a different smell.
So they're ENRON essentially.....
Jan should have pulled a Trump: "Look, all I want is that you find some $2 billion dollars"
🤣🤣🤣🤣🎯
Lmao 🤣🤣
Any company involved with the scummy online gambling scams world you should never have anything to do with them. I avoided them like the plague you should too going foreword.
Too late for many. Me included.
Hey Germany, didn't you learn not to get duped by an Austrian with big promises?
Austrian boys brought shame to Germany, again.
Not uncommon I guess? Austrian dudes scuba diving in SEA ruining corals and just got away because the poor dive guides just don‘t know how to throw idiot tourists out of their country🤬
“Interestingly the collapse of Wirecard started when Wirecard was at its peak”
Obviously, when you collapse you just go down.
If there is one thing I have learned from recent scandals, it’s that you should NOT trust anyone who comes in dressed like Steve Jobs to try and sell you something. First it was Elizabeth Holmes, then it was this guy. Beware of the black turtleneck, y’all!
Coldfusion is 1 guy and delivered the same info to the audience in a much more comprehensible, digestible, and relatable way. Doing it all with 0.01% of the financial accessibility Bloomberg’s quick take has to provide a team of researchers, editors, content managers. Come on Bloomberg, the lack of conviction to craft is getting transparent.
and 5 months ago
Yeah that guy is pro, these institutions should learn from these channels
@@johnl.7754 this doc gives more information tho
@@oo--7714 Nope, it doesn’t. With amount of resources at their disposal, they could do much better than ColdFusion.
@@FabioTheGreat This doc does have more information, allegedly from wirecard employee talking anonymously. It also doesn't contain some parts that ColdFusion covered.
Diese kommentarsektion ist nun eigentum der bundesrepublik Deutschland 🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪
How is Ey and any other auditors involved not dragged into this , is beyond me
*Why Everyone Commenting about Austrian* ??? *Do Germans and Austrians have a Bad Past* ?? PLS TELL ME......
NEIN! NEIN! NEIN!
It's just a coincidence...
There's a famous Austrian who lead Germany into WW2
Christ
at 10:10 drugs in the apartment - are Russian. АРБИДОЛ name is clearly visible
@2:07 on her fitbit "Welcome at Wirecard Cafe"
Never trust a huge company that can't even get their grammar correct
It wasn’t us, it was the Austrians, yeah yeah, we know.
As I always say, all of Germany's problems come from Austria.
Maybe they should have listend to Bismarck in 1866 and took Vienna.
🤣🤣
This story gets better and better. Seems like the finical watchdog was in on it or reaping the benefits of growing stock price
IT’S TIME TO AUDIT THE AUDITOR !!!
oh vey, why so antisemitic?
13 minutes of vaporware. Save yourself the time.
People mistake the globally standardized audit procedures with Forensic and fraud examination. Audit is not designed to discover fraud or intentional deceit., that's when they brought KPMG later on to do specifically those procedures.
those 3 side-by-side 'photos' of Marsalek are...odd. anyone else see that?
"and some employees at these banks were not who they SAID they would be??"
*what the...??* because suddenly that guy lost command of his ability to speak english?? and in a way that actually made sense. yeah, something is really OFF about the presentation of this very strange story! I mean, this mini-doco is just *weird!*
I know him, I saw him in Portugal in Funchal(Madeira Island), I was staying near to his villa
You can make some serious money if you report him
He is like Interpol Most wanted
report him and make some bank
marsalek should become the New Bond 007.
Apple’s revenue in 2 days...
I wish I was one of these Machiavellian characters... I am just to dumb and frivolous 😔 and I hate when ppl gets screwed.
Machiavelli doesn't promote frauds and his philosophy has to do with statecraft, not with ripping off the people of their hard earn money.
@@arminius6506 has to do with power and strategy to earn what you think is yours boi. You took it too literally 😆
Not the first time, some Austrian guy commited crimes on German soil :D
Here in Singapore they have their Asian HQ, which was raided by local law enforcement last year supposedly as it co-ordinated their fictitious business in the Phillippines. Thinking how much responsibility will the government here be expected to take for not detecting that earlier.
@Bloomberg quicktale. You guys benefit either way, when wire card was trending from the huge profits it was posting you helped promote it and now that the it has collapsed you help provide facts and evidence on the same. Can’t you guys do your own research cause some people rely on the information you provide else you are similar to Ernst & Young (EY) in this case.
I see Derren Brown is looking well...
Germany got screwed by an Austrian .... AGAIN
movie title: "Where's Jan Marsalek?"
Honestly this isn't even close to the end. Consider how fast police came to his aid. I think the job loss is a smokescreen.
Is the guy with the glasses Derren browns brother?
I have seen enough auditors practice their craft now to know that audits are not meant to find anything. They are meant to ensure that the processes they audit have the right formalism… not that they are relevant, true, right, or honest. So inthis instance, the auditors could have pointed out if a stamp was missing on a fake bank record, but certainly NOT that these were fraudulent statements made to count non-existent money.
Plot twist. Benedikt Kammel is Derren Brown!
"Interestinly the collapse of Wirecard starts right around the time where Wirecard is at its peak" - Isn't that what a "peak" is?
Collapse ≠ decline
No
Beautiful. Is stealing from a bunch of lazy remorsless investors something bad? Its everybody looking for him to congratulate him? I hope soon appears another guy like this. Eat that investors!!!....
"far-right" is a meaningless term in our current political environment.
Mercenary friends that were in Syria hmm? Fled to Belarus hmm? I bet Prigozhin knows something.
Wow this is could be a plot of a movie. The trauma beds and medicine is extremely weird unless he really is some sort of mercenary.
*An Audit co. that DIDN'T do his job...*
And you guys call this *Surprising News???*
May be he has invested everything in Bitcoin.
This video seems embellished. It clams these guys are friends but they are most definitely not friends.
Germans conspired with a Austrian. Not a Austrian fckd the Germans. The German parties involved were willing participants, enthusiastic participants smh.