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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

#221

Post by diogenescynic »

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.

Replace the DAX with Nasdaq and America is basically the same. We just have different names for it like lobbying.

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

#222

Post by labawi »

DangerousPie wrote: post #178
zentiggr wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So... if he hadn't pushed for copper and instead did the 'better for society' fiber solution, the company wouldn't have been worth nearly as much, possibly much less. And those stock sales would have been much less profitable. Not direct cash bribe but definitely far more motivated than just incompetence.

I don't get it. Once he sold the shares he had no further interest in their value. Nothing that happened once he became a minister could have affected his profits from the sale of his stocks. Why are you saying "those stock sales would have been much less profitable"?!

Legally, that's why he had to sell the stocks, which is a reasonable requirement.

OTOH, it doesn't preclude a mutually beneficial understanding, which the exchange points to. Maybe he had a deal, or wanted to keep the good stock between friends.

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

#223

Post by catalogia »

gumby wrote: post #98
dsabanin wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking, that in a scary way, the psychiatric diagnosis for people investigating corruption in Russia or CCP does start to make sense. It is such an extreme risk to go against these regimes, both to their and their relatives' safety and livelihoods that it makes their actions seem insane. Extreme risk-taking without regard for consequence, suicidal tendencies, paranoia towards the government, unbounded anxiety…

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…

Please be aware that presently the American federal government seems to be systematically arresting some protesters without doing any paperwork (and therefore no public record, except for the testimony and video of victims and witnesses.)

Here is a HN discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23866926 | https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unm...

> Pettibone said he was put into a cell. Soon after, two officers came in to read him his Miranda rights. They didn’t tell him why he was being arrested. He said they asked him if he wanted to waive his rights and answer some questions, but Pettibone declined and said he wanted a lawyer. The interview was terminated, and about 90 minutes later he was released. He said he did not receive any paperwork, citation or record of his arrest. [...] In a statement, the U.S. Marshals Service declined to comment on the practice of using unmarked vehicles, but said their officers had not arrested Pettibone. “All United States Marshals Service arrestees have public records of arrest documenting their charges. Our agency did not arrest or detain Mark James Pettibone.”

There are also a few videos confirming at least some of those details; namely camouflaged men, faces covered, pulling protesters into unmarked vehicles. In one of the videos, the men with guns tell other protesters that they'll be shot if they try to follow the unmarked vehicle. The local PD claimed they didn't arrest anybody.

https://vidmax.com/video/196124-sdpd-toss-protester-in-unmar...

> One cop was heard saying "If you follow us, you will be shot." San Diego police reported the protest was the biggest and most peaceful protest in San Diego so far, and nobody was arrested.

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

#224

Post by gumby »

catalogia wrote: post #223
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…

Please be aware that presently the American federal government seems to be systematically arresting some protesters without doing any paperwork (and therefore no public record, except for the testimony and video of victims and witnesses.) Here is a HN discussion about it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23866926 | https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unm... > Pettibone said he was put into a…

This is another solid example of adapting to the constraints, a particularly chilling one.

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

#225

Post by advanced-DnD »

jacquesm wrote: post #168
aaisola wrote: post #107

There is also an element of hubris where Germany and the EU so badly wanted to have a tech champion emerge that was competitive on a global level, where they looked the other way anytime someone raised concerns. The FT has been criticizing Wirecard for yrs..

The EU has plenty of tech companies competing on a global level. They're not the ones that you may think of but they're there regardless.

German government, politicians are investors are too conservative to invest in tech companies that are not run by their peers.

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

#226

Post by goliatone »

maze-le wrote: post #26

> Sure, it's not like Russia or the CCP and you're not in danger of being suicided if you uncover some high level dirt You are not going to get disappered, but you are in danger of getting a fraudulent "psychiatric diagnosis" if you are a tax investigator uncovering dirt about some politicians or their cronies.[0][1] In this case the investigator got free, but I am sure there are some cases out there of people who di…

> I always cringe when people use Germany as an example of a society that doesn't have a lot of corruption It is definitely interesting how perception works both inside and outside a given actor/nation. What I found illuminating was learning about the German bribery tax break[1][2].

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1995-08-06/germany-w...

[2] https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/2014/0214/Top-12-weirdest...

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

#227

Post by jacquesm »

advanced-DnD wrote: post #225
jacquesm wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU has plenty of tech companies competing on a global level. They're not the ones that you may think of but they're there regardless.

German government, politicians are investors are too conservative to invest in tech companies that are not run by their peers.

The EU is far larger than Germany, though it is definitely one of the larger economic drivers. But France, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany too have their own contributors who quietly perform and try hard not to attract too much attention to their origins.

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

#229

Post by dang »

The Wirecard stack so far:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23668365

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23662704

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23638624

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23611347

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23598824

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23573386

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23438323

This, from April 2019, reads interestingly now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19737344

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

#230

Post by dang »

thespiceisloco wrote: post #129
marcinzm wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

HN silences people from commenting about Wirecard?!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23874420

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