Wirecard has for the first time acknowledged the potential scale of a multiyear accounting fraud, as the German fintech group warned that €1.9bn of cash on its balance sheet probably does “not exist”.
The payments company said it had previously mischaracterised its biggest source of profits and that it was now trying to work out “whether, in which manner and to what extent such business has actually been conducted for the benefit of the company”. It withdrew its most recent financial results and said other years’ accounts may be inaccurate.
As Wirecard’s shares resumed their precipitous fall — down 33 per cent on Monday and more than 80 per cent since the collapse began on Thursday — the German establishment began its own reckoning.