BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – In the balance sheet scandal about the Dax group (DAX 30) Wirecard, the Greens also accuse Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) of failing to do so. “It is imperative that Mr. Scholz in the Wirecard case explains not only what the supervisory authorities have failed to do, but also why the Ministry of Finance itself did not act earlier,” criticized Greens boss Robert Habeck. Habeck told the German press agency that he had the impression that Scholz and the management of the Ministry of Finance had not dealt sufficiently with the case: “The warning lights have been on for a long time.”
Financial supervision Bafin is under the Federal Ministry of Finance. “There must have been at least inquiries and advice from management and the finance minister as part of the service and technical supervision, everything else would not be responsible,” said Habeck. After all, it is about warding off damage from Germany as a financial center.
Wirecard had filed for bankruptcy after the company had to admit that the EUR 1.9 billion in cash on the balance sheet that it said was in Asian bank accounts could not be found. Bafin President Felix Hufeld described the events as “shame”. Scholz announced stricter regulation. Hufeld is scheduled to answer questions this Wednesday in the Finance Committee of the Bundestag. As a first consequence, the federal government wants to terminate the contract with the German Accounting Office (DPR). The DPR, which is organized under private law, controls the balance sheets on behalf of the state.
According to the DPR, the Bafin had given notice in February 2019 that there were inconsistencies in Wirecard’s 2018 half-year results. According to a report by the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung”, the DPR, which is also known as the “balance sheet police”, was said to have been entrusted with the laborious examination of only one single employee in the past 16 months. The division of tasks between Bafin and DPR is also at the center of criticism on the part of the EU Commission against Germany in the Wirecard case.
Left-wing faction vice Fabio De Masi criticized Bafin and DPR “playing blind cows, while Wirecard was probably a criminal Pyramid scheme The DPR was not an “accounting police”, but an “alibi event”. But the Bafin had “slept” despite numerous indications. FDP parliamentary group member Michael Theurer spoke of a “full-blown scandal” , pity the entire location Germany./sl/DP/zb
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