Allegations of financial misconduct dogged German payment processing giant Wirecard AG since its inception; why did it take so long to uncover the fraud? Michael Toebe muses here about the perils of ego and unchecked greed.
Wirecard’s gross financial misconduct and resulting scandal and crisis has been dubbed the Enron of Germany by some analysts. No matter how many times this type of compliance and governance failure is repeated, leading to massive damage to stakeholders, ruin of reputation and careers, there always will be new actors eager to travel the same dangerous path.
Wirecard’s deception proved productive and profitable, and now-former CEO Markus Braun’s decision analysis, decision making and decision quality never improved. He was not alone though in failure as fired COO Jan Marsalek was his partner in crime (now reportedly hiding out in the Philippines).
Criminal thinking and actions seemed like the “right thing,” blinding leadership to ethics and risk management and thus Wirecard operated illegally, escaping capture until deep into the damage. It’s been reported that shares are down 95 percent.
Braun, knowing he was cornered, chose a fruitless attempt at blame shifting before his resignation and subsequent arrest. He has since been released on bail (which he managed to post, despite the…
