German payments provider Wirecard has recently been the subject of a scandalous revelation, after auditors discovered €1.9 billion in cash has gone missing. As a result, the company’s chief operating officer Jan Marsalek was suspended last week, and then fired come Monday. In the meantime, chief executive officer Markus Braun stepped down from his position after insisting that Wirecard was simply the victim of fraud.
Now however, Braun has turned himself in to police custody, where he was arrested on accusations that he falsified revenues and made Wirecard’s balance sheets appear more inflated so as to garner attention from customers and investors. According to Wirecard, the supposed missing €1.9 billion euros most likely never existed in the first place, after the Philippines central bank stated that no such amount of money has entered its financial system.
Wirecard’s stock was once considered one of the most successful companies in the ever-increasing financial technology sector, but now shares of the company have fallen by over 85% since the scandal broke last week.
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