In September 2014, the FT’s Dan McCrum received a tip about a fast-growing German fintech group, Wirecard. Over the next couple of years Dan and his colleagues uncovered the secret behind the payment company’s meteoric growth: many of the customers listed in company documents did not exist. In this episode Dan tells the story of the whistleblowers, shoe-leather reporting, hacking, suspected surveillance and legal threats that led to Wirecard’s downfall.  

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Review clips: CNBC, Deutsche Welle 

Further reading:

The double life of Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek https://www.ft.com/content/511ecf86-ab40-486c-8f76-b8ebda4cc669

Inside Wirecard

https://www.ft.com/wirecard

Dan’s 2015 story for Alphaville

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/04/27/2127427/the-house-of-wirecard/

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