The Wirecard Scandal: The Journalist Who Exposed Billions in Fraud
Financial Times reporter Dan McCrum's book reveals how he uncovered one of the 21st century's biggest financial frauds—and the price he paid for doing his duty.
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The Wirecard Scandal: The Journalist Who Exposed Billions in Fraud
Investigative journalist Dan McCrum at Financial Times exposed the biggest financial fraud of the 21st century—and was met with threats and harassment instead of recognition. His new book tells the story of how a German payment processing company manipulated authorities, investors, and the public for years, while McCrum himself became the target of a systematic smear campaign.
The book "Wirecard — Die Milliardenlüge" (Wirecard — The Billion-Euro Lie) recounts from the perspective of the only man who early on detected that something was fundamentally wrong at Wirecard AG in Munich. McCrum began his investigations as early as 2015—many years before the company's insolvency filing in June 2020 finally exposed the fraud.
Classic Journalistic Suspicion Without Evidence
The story begins with basic journalistic questions: Why were Wirecard's business figures so consistently impressive? Where exactly were the transactions taking place that made the company a heavyweight in payment processing?
McCrum pursued these questions with the persistence that an experienced reporter exhibits when intuition suggests something doesn't add up. Wirecard presented itself as an innovative payment provider with bright prospects. Billions flowed in from investors. German financial regulators were convinced. But McCrum found discrepancies that others had overlooked or refused to see:
