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Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

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Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#121

Post by TheRealSteel »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

Also, under Helmut Kohl, despite advice from experts to use fiber, the German government wired the whole country with copper instead because the ministry of infrastructure at the time had stocks in the copper business leaving the country's internet behind Ukraine or Belarus.[1] If you're on the DAX or a politician, you're untouchable in Germany and lots of people inside and outside of Germany have no idea of how insa…

The first paragraph is exactly what happened in Australia too. I will never forgive anyone in the Liberal party (the conservative one) for the treasonous act of deliberately destroying the NBN.

It set every industry in the country back decades. Medicine, education, everything. It makes my blood boil. I have to avoid thinking or reading about it at this point.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#122

Post by Jdam »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

Also, under Helmut Kohl, despite advice from experts to use fiber, the German government wired the whole country with copper instead because the ministry of infrastructure at the time had stocks in the copper business leaving the country's internet behind Ukraine or Belarus.[1] If you're on the DAX or a politician, you're untouchable in Germany and lots of people inside and outside of Germany have no idea of how insa…

BS. My area had fibre since the 80s or 90s and that's why we had to have dial-up until early 2000s. Early DSL only worked through copper.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#123

Post by qayxc »

levosmetalo wrote: post #67
chki wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If you're on the DAX or a politician, you're untouchable in Germany and lots of people inside and outside of Germany have no idea of how insanely corrupt the German government and their corporate buddies are. This is obviously not true. There have been numerous uncovered political scandals in Germany that have led to politicians and managers loosing their job. Christian Wulff (Former German President), Guttenberg (f…

Even though losing the job is not a punishment, not everyone even lost his job. Andreas Sheuer is still in charge of transport as a federal Minister, despite the 500,000,000 € heavy corruption scandal. Von der Leyen got even "promoted" to EU-lead position after heavy corruption scandal last year when she was a Defense Minister of Germany. Not only Germany, but in the whole EU commission leadership it would be hard to…

The problem is that gross incompetence is not a crime.

You can't arrest someone on account of them being an idiot.

It's the responsibility of the other party members and especially the opposition to demand him being removed from office.

Funnily enough the Green Party demanded exactly that, but then again that's the same party that wants general speed limits...

So yeah, of course any party that wants to get reelected in Germany will stand behind that clown, as long as that clown fights for "Freie Fahrt für freie Bürger!" and lets them keep their drivers license, because 21 km/h above the speed limit is just a trivial offence...

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#124

Post by ChuckNorris89 »

slightwinder wrote: post #76
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He sold his shares hours(!) before being signed on as minister and he sold them to the company that benefited the most from the copper cabling that he pushed for. How you can mistake this obvious corruption for incompetence is beyond me.

> He sold his shares hours(!) before being signed on as minister This is normal procedure. There is a rather short timeframe between appointment and becoming a minister. Of course did he sold it only after he know it would be a problem. > How you can mistake this obvious corruption for incompetence is beyond me. He had no benefits personally, so it's not corruption. This is just a nice story you tell the kids to give…

Except you're ignoring the part where the copper cable policy he pushed against the advice of his experts made the company he sold his share to obscenely rich.

Is that also not corruption but incompetence?

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#125

Post by allendoerfer »

Grollicus wrote: post #115
allendoerfer wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scheuer is my personal pet peeve. His last act was to create road traffic regulations, except he made some procedural errors, so 16 states have to roll them back and implement them again once it has been properly voted on the law. All that after evaporating 500.000.000 € in a pissing contest everyone knew he was going to lose. The guy is corrupt and comically incompetent, but he just seems invincible. Why is he still…

> Why is he still in office The answer to that question is called the CSU. But they are losing ground in Bavaria so there's hope.

They will also provide the next chancellor of Germany, so I am not that hopeful yet.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#126

Post by gumby »

unreal37 wrote: post #113
gumby wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW this is why arrest records are public in the USA. The British would arrest people and their families and friends couldn’t tell what had happened, so as a result you “can’t” be secretly arrested. I put “can’t” in quotes because of course there are a bunch of ways the rules get bent and twisted, but I suspect the number of arrests unreported by 24 hours is pretty close to nil. OTOH the system has adapted to this co…

Reminds me of people who were arrested and convicted of "resisting arrest" and no other charges. That should not be a thing. If you're being arrested and the charges are never laid, or are later dropped, resisting arrest should be dropped too.

Yes, the US has a number of other mechanisms that are illegal/immoral in other countries such as the “charge stacking” you describe, plea bargains (there such an asymmetry in power that they are hardly “bargains”), and prison labor.

Not picking on the US here: the inverse is true as well: the adversarial trial system and juries, separation of prosecution and the judiciary, etc imho provide stronger protection for the accused.

Societies are complex and the design is far from understood.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#127

Post by gumby »

s5300 wrote: post #117
gumby wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

BTW this is why arrest records are public in the USA. The British would arrest people and their families and friends couldn’t tell what had happened, so as a result you “can’t” be secretly arrested. I put “can’t” in quotes because of course there are a bunch of ways the rules get bent and twisted, but I suspect the number of arrests unreported by 24 hours is pretty close to nil. OTOH the system has adapted to this co…

Yeah, but you can literally be 72 hour psych holded with absolutely zero contact with the outside world by the decision of a single, simple psychiatrist. That's arguably worse than being secretly arrested.

Yeah that’s a good example of extrajudicial punishment. Well, a terrible example, but “terrible” in the sense of its abuse.

I wonder how 72 hours can be constitutional when arraignment is typically supposed to be 24. Perhaps it’s like fingerprints, where assumptions rather than science dominate.

The idea of a brief psych hold is reasonable on some platonic level (I’ve had friends have psychotic breaks who were far better off not being in a conventional prison) but the reality, and the opportunity for abuse are far from that ideal.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#128

Post by rasz »

chki wrote: post #16
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #4

Also, under Helmut Kohl, despite advice from experts to use fiber, the German government wired the whole country with copper instead because the ministry of infrastructure at the time had stocks in the copper business leaving the country's internet behind Ukraine or Belarus.[1] If you're on the DAX or a politician, you're untouchable in Germany and lots of people inside and outside of Germany have no idea of how insa…

>If you're on the DAX or a politician, you're untouchable in Germany and lots of people inside and outside of Germany have no idea of how insanely corrupt the German government and their corporate buddies are. This is obviously not true. There have been numerous uncovered political scandals in Germany that have led to politicians and managers loosing their job. Christian Wulff (Former German President), Guttenberg (f…

You are technically not wrong. I mean Hans-Georg Maassen, head of BfV (spy agency), did lose his job. Not after sharing secret information with neo nazis, that wasnt enough. He doubled down by calling fake news at a video showing neo nazis chasing/beating immigrants. Had to leave his BfV presidency ... for a higher paying position at the interior ministry ;-) aka promotion.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#129

Post by thespiceisloco »

marcinzm wrote: post #91
lima wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The affair you're talking about happened more than a decade ago, it was a major and pretty unique scandal in Germany, and the "expert" has been convicted not only to pay damages, but was also found to be guilty of malpractice. The state eventually offered the investigators to be re-hired. There were no consequences for the "instigators" because, to my understanding, it couldn't be proven that there was criminal inten…

I mean, in Wirecard prosecutors literally went after short sellers with criminals charges. For years. They only dropped charges a few months ago after a donation was made to a charitable organization. Seems pretty similar and pretty corrupt to me. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wirecard-accounts-germany... edit: I guess "we'll ruin you and throw you in jail" is better than "we'll throw you out a window" but it's…

HN silences people like you.

Be careful.

Re: Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard

#130

Post by DangerousPie »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #124
slightwinder wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He sold his shares hours(!) before being signed on as minister This is normal procedure. There is a rather short timeframe between appointment and becoming a minister. Of course did he sold it only after he know it would be a problem. > How you can mistake this obvious corruption for incompetence is beyond me. He had no benefits personally, so it's not corruption. This is just a nice story you tell the kids to give…

Except you're ignoring the part where the copper cable policy he pushed against the advice of his experts made the company he sold his share to obscenely rich. Is that also not corruption but incompetence?

I don’t see how you could call this corruption, he didn’t benefit from someone else getting rich. Unless there is any evidence that he sold his shares at an inflated price with the understanding that he would pay back the favour while in office or something like that, which I don’t think there is.
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