Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
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Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#2it baffles me that it had to come this far. There were warning signs all over it.
The German BaFin messed up so badly that one must either fundamentally doubt theircompetence or question their integrity.
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#3it baffles me that it had to come this far. There were warning signs all over it. The German BaFin messed up so badly that one must either fundamentally doubt theircompetence or question their integrity.
At least BaFin boss Felix Hufeld admitted they messed up and that the whole thing was the biggest debacle he ever witnessed.
This is rare, and I find it respectable. But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend.
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#4it baffles me that it had to come this far. There were warning signs all over it. The German BaFin messed up so badly that one must either fundamentally doubt theircompetence or question their integrity.
At least BaFin boss Felix Hufeld admitted they messed up and that the whole thing was the biggest debacle he ever witnessed. This is rare, and I find it respectable. But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend.
Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation.
Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with the car industry scandals (not just Dieselgate but also the Porsche attempted takeover) or with Bayer/Monsanto.
Germany doesn't have many "unicorns" so politics will protect them until way too late, for the companies, for the share/stakeholders and the planet.
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#5Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least BaFin boss Felix Hufeld admitted they messed up and that the whole thing was the biggest debacle he ever witnessed. This is rare, and I find it respectable. But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…
> Germany doesn't have many "unicorns" so politics will protect them until way too late, for the companies, for the share/stakeholders and the planet.
Interesting. Is there a strong feeling of innovation/unicorn envy among the wider business culture in Germany? Is it a fear of being stale, comparisons to Silicon Valley & Asian tech scene, or something else? I'm curious if you have more insight on this?
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
At least BaFin boss Felix Hufeld admitted they messed up and that the whole thing was the biggest debacle he ever witnessed. This is rare, and I find it respectable. But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…
Or most of the major fraud happened outside of Germany [1] and like most ponzis/frauds they can seem entirely legitimate on the surface until all the tail ends start becoming shorter and there's no Peters left to pay Paul.
Plus they seemed to have had a legitimate primary business, more than enough to cover their pump & dumping in foreign countries without strong rule of law.
There are always limitations on how much regulators and law enforcement can do and it always seems obvious in retrospect. There's always more that could have been done.
[1] the prior accusations by FT in 2019 mentioned it was their foreign subsidiaries inflating sales figures and recently the money got 'lost' hit a dead end in Asia. Companies often get plenty of time to pay back debts and billion dollar companies are given the benefit of the doubt they can pay it back...
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…
> Germany doesn't have many "unicorns" so politics will protect them until way too late, for the companies, for the share/stakeholders and the planet. Interesting. Is there a strong feeling of innovation/unicorn envy among the wider business culture in Germany? Is it a fear of being stale, comparisons to Silicon Valley & Asian tech scene, or something else? I'm curious if you have more insight on this?
> Is there a strong feeling of innovation/unicorn envy among the wider business culture in Germany?
Everyone wants to be like the SV hipsters, no one can because the higher-ups are still mentally and literally stuck in fax times, there is almost no venture capital (and the venture capital that is here gets invested into stuff like Rocket Internet whose "business model" is to copycat US ideas), banks (across the EU) won't dish out dumb money because unlike the US we have public funded pension systems and not capital-based ones and we have strict loan regulations (Basel framework).
> Is it a fear of being stale
Culturally, us Germans are known for being extremely risk-averse, bankruptcies are socially shamed. This of course clashes with the US way of life that from the bottom to the top embodies "fail fast", and the youth yearns for change but as explained above that's hard to do.
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…
> Germany doesn't have many "unicorns" so politics will protect them until way too late, for the companies, for the share/stakeholders and the planet. Interesting. Is there a strong feeling of innovation/unicorn envy among the wider business culture in Germany? Is it a fear of being stale, comparisons to Silicon Valley & Asian tech scene, or something else? I'm curious if you have more insight on this?
I'm German and I honestly have the opposite feeling. I participated in "startup culture" for a few years and I want to never touch it again.
I think in the German industry itself there is no real fear of staleness because our systems of innovation generally work differently, on occassion there is a media hype cycle about "rising economy X" displacing everyone, but that has been going on since the 80s when the UK's financialisation was everyone's favourite model. I'm glad we didn't follow on that front... well I guess except for Wirecard that is.
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…
> Germany doesn't have many "unicorns" so politics will protect them until way too late, for the companies, for the share/stakeholders and the planet. Interesting. Is there a strong feeling of innovation/unicorn envy among the wider business culture in Germany? Is it a fear of being stale, comparisons to Silicon Valley & Asian tech scene, or something else? I'm curious if you have more insight on this?
German here with startup experience abroad. No there isn't - and it baffles and worries me to the same extent. (Many) Germans think of innovation as incremental, and don't realise how much Germany is missing out in terms of disruptive innovation.
Re: Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun arrested
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
> But yeah, how they missed that is hard to comprehend. Look at the German DAX and what is in there. That is explanation enough. Heavy industry, consumer goods, banks, insurances. The only IT company other than Wirecard is SAP and it is not exactly known for innovation. Everyone, especially politics, wanted Wirecard to succeed: the only actually somewhat innovative IT company in the DAX. It's the same pattern with th…
Or most of the major fraud happened outside of Germany [1] and like most ponzis/frauds they can seem entirely legitimate on the surface until all the tail ends start becoming shorter and there's no Peters left to pay Paul. Plus they seemed to have had a legitimate primary business, more than enough to cover their pump & dumping in foreign countries without strong rule of law. There are always limitations on how much…
Bafin went further than "not paying attention/not having access" though. When Financial Times published articles last year questioning Wirecards accounts, Bafin banned shorts on Wirecard temporarily and asked prosecutors to investigate the journalists for market manipulation, in parallel to looking into Wirecard. That's a bad look when it seems they were right.