"Very grateful for your work": Scholz full of praise for Wirecard revelers

"Very grateful for your work"
Scholz full of praise for those who reveal Wirecard

In the middle of the year, the Dax group Wirecard collapsed – triggered by research by Dan McCrum. For this, the journalist receives the German Reporter Prize, including a laudation from Finance Minister Scholz. A spicy combination: the revelations put him and the Bafin in great trouble.

Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz thanks the investigative journalist Dan McCrum for his educational work on the Wirecard scandal. McCrum made the dodgy business practices of the Munich-based payment service provider public with his persistent reporting for the British newspaper "Financial Times". At the award ceremony in the evening, Scholz will give the laudation to McCrum, who will receive the German Reporter Award.

In his pre-recorded video message, the minister calls McCrum a "scout in the best history of press freedom" and his reports on Wirecard a "milestone in investigative journalism". He emphasizes: "I am very grateful to you, dear Dan McCrum and your fellow campaigners, especially Stefania Palma, for your work." The former Dax group Wirecard, which is now insolvent, admitted air bookings of 1.9 billion euros in June and subsequently filed for bankruptcy. The Munich public prosecutor's office assumes that the company has shown fictitious profits since 2015 and is investigating commercial gang fraud.

Scholz is under political pressure because the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) reports to his ministry. Critics accuse the Bafin of having failed controls. Scholz now wants to equip the authority with more competencies.

The German Reporter Prize has been awarded by the journalist network Reporter Forum for twelve years. It is not endowed and is intended to fuel debates about quality in journalism.

. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Wirecard (t) Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (t) Olaf Scholz (t) Dax company (t) Federal Ministry of Finance (t) affairs and scandals (t) White-collar crime