Germany’s top financial supervisor dismissed a decade of warnings about Wirecard • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by atVelocet » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 9:28 PM UTC

blablabla123 wrote: post #306

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 article referenced in your article about that is from 1983. [1] I don't think fibre optics technology was that established at the time. Helmut Kohl's chancellorship was from 1982-1998. During that time, after the German reunion there were large scale investments into an upgrade of the Eastern German infrastructure including fibre glass deployment in the new German Länder. Therefore for a long time this area had s…

This doesn’t matter as what you are stating is false assumption. Deutsche Bundespost built a first fibre optics link in 1978[0]. In 1981 they „ruled“ to invest in fibre tech over the next 30 years. Guess who canceled that. You can also find more in-depth Info and should definitely read [1]. Also the Russians got to Kohl in 1986/1987 and offered him the reunification. But he refused in fear to loose the Bundestagswahl of 1987. This guy was one the ridiculous politicians we ever saw. Heck.. the bribe money the CDU owned that was stored in Switzerland even has ties to gold the Nazis stole from the Jews. Never trust anything the CDU does. Never trust anyone of the high ranking politicians. Always ask yourself: Qui Bono? [0] https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lichtwellenleiter [1] https://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/Missing-Link-Der-Kam...

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

#332

Post by helentoomik » Sat, Jul 18, 2020, 9:51 PM UTC

fluffything wrote: post #191

allendoerfer wrote: post #119

I would like to see EY pay for the whole thing (since they were paid to check the books, which they obviously didn't). Also a big tree of associates and their superiors from BaFIN, Wirecard, EY, KPMG, etc. (maybe also some institutional investors, who are supposed to do due dilligence) getting fired and prosecuted for defrauding and not checking properly, please. But I am dreaming - three people will get convicted, s…

IIUC, EY was paid to check that what was reported in the books balances to zero. They were not paid to check that what was reported in the books was "correct". That's not EYs job. If somebody thinks a company lies in their books, they report it to BaFIN, and it is BaFIN job to investigate. They did the opposite of that here though.

It absolutely is the auditor's job to check that what is reported is "correct". The auditor's task is to check that the company's financial statements give a "true and fair" view of the company’s business.

Auditors are expected to confirm e.g. that inventory counts are correct and inventory valuation is reasonable, that accounts receivable represent actual claims on counterparties that actually exist, that bank accounts listed in the accounts exist and have the correct balance, etc.

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

#333

Post by tdeck » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 9:03 AM UTC

awakeasleep wrote: post #85

levosmetalo wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue is people are just not aware on the corruption in Germany because there's no "personal" and "everyday" corruption in a daily life. But if you look "up" the amount of corruption rise to the astonishing levels. Just remember Stuttgart 21 or the Berlin Airport, Hamburg Elb Philharmonic, Battleship Gorch Fock. Germany is full of such corrupt projects, it's obvious and everyone knows about it, but nobody yet wen…

This resonates with me as an american. I dont think there is any amount of money i could offer to safely escape a drunk driving ticket, however the ceo of my company was the head of the board for an security company, and we were forced to use their products despite an unimaginable amount of flaws. The second the security company was sold we were allowed to drop every aspect of that company, 10 huge enterprise product…

> I dont think there is any amount of money i could offer to safely escape a drunk driving ticket

https://lifehacker.com/how-to-buy-new-york-citys-get-out-of-...

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

#334

Post by felixfbecker » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 9:57 AM UTC

calpaterson wrote: post #22

Sadly can't read the article as I don't have a subscription but have followed this in the FT. Germany has an ultra-protectionist political culture for pet German companies. Wirecard was one such pet company but there are many others who have benefited from implicit state support in the form of lowered standards and private favouritism: Deutsche, VW, Siemens, etc. Wirecard even holds a banking license so should be sub…

Deutsche what? Deutsche Bahn? Deutsche Bank? Deutsche Telekom? Deutsche Post? All of them? Deutsche just means “German”

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

#335

Post by qayxc » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 12:20 PM UTC

heavenlyblue wrote: post #325

qayxc wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> The problem is that gross incompetence is not a crime I think it should be. You get the power over large sums of money and for that you’re liable with your life.

Problem is, you wouldn't find anyone willing to take that job then.

We're all just human after all and making mistakes is part of the human condition.

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

#336

Post by qayxc » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 12:49 PM UTC

creato wrote: post #290

qayxc wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're still missing the point completely - corruption is a crime . The problem is that pretty much nothing these politicians do is actually illegal and thus doesn't constitute a crime in the first place. This is why legislation and regulations need to change, because that's way easier than trying to change people. If you don't like the rules of the game, demand to change the rules instead of shouting "You're all che…

I generally agree with your point, but I disagree that legislation and regulations are the problem. Once you reach high level politics, the fact is that anything but utterly blatant criminal behavior will be a political issue. The solution is that politicians need to be held to a much higher standard than the letter of the law, by their voters. It boggles my mind how many politicians have such obvious conflicts of in…

> I disagree that legislation and regulations are the problem

Feel free to disagree with that. I stand by my point on account of the lack of transparency (e.g. no obligation to make ancillary income public) and the legality of the "Revolving Door"-effect.

Government officials in Germany are free to leave office for private enterprise with no restrictions. Public officers have to report lobbying jobs to their former office for 5 years, but the worst that can happen if they don't is loosing their pension.

The latter is not much of a problem, though, if the new employer just pays well enough...

This leads to CFOs of DAX companies becoming government officials in the ministry of finance; public officers serving in the ministry for radiation protection who dealt with interim storage facilities to leave office for (nuclear-) energy companies, and so on.

Holding politicians to higher standards than the law is delusional. Politicians are humans, too. None of them are Jesus Christ incarnate and none of them should be either, because in a democracy they should represent The People, not some Utopian ideal.

> It boggles my mind how many politicians have such obvious conflicts of interest that manage to retain approval of their constituents.

That's because in Germany, nobody knows that there even is a conflict of interests, because politicians aren't obligated to make additional income public.

A reasonable first step would be to make that mandatory (you don't even have to disclose exact sums of money, but it helps knowing that your representative has a paid seat in some board of directors on the side).

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

#337

Post by Havoc » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 2:19 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #248

Havoc wrote: post #220

>Germany's SEC Talk about a US centric headline lol

Ok, we've inlined that bit in the title.

Thanks. Was frankly more amused than complaining but I appreciate you changing it

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

#338

Post by heavenlyblue » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 4:14 PM UTC

qayxc wrote: post #335

heavenlyblue wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The problem is that gross incompetence is not a crime I think it should be. You get the power over large sums of money and for that you’re liable with your life.

Problem is, you wouldn't find anyone willing to take that job then. We're all just human after all and making mistakes is part of the human condition.

I think it’s a comfortable lie people say.

There’s so much that comes with the power that it’s a very shallow argument to make.

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

#339

Post by heavenlyblue » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 4:14 PM UTC

oblio wrote: post #329

heavenlyblue wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think is going to happen if a wester state brought military to help you with corruption?

Who asked for military help?

How do you think the west should get rid of your corruption then?

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

#340

Post by valuearb » Sun, Jul 19, 2020, 10:14 PM UTC

ihm wrote: post #267

papito wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be that way. Right now in the United States, the level of corruption that we see is absolutely off the charts and out in the open. It's akin to a strange alien weapon for most Americans, that goes off near you, putting you in a state of trance, and you don't even know what's happening. There is brazenness and blatancy to it, as in "yeah, I did it, what are YOU going to do about it?" In many other countries…

It's been this way for a while (forever?) in the US... Dick Cheney helped start a war (that killed something like 500,000 people) on knowingly false pretenses partly so that he could give his company Halliburton a $7 billion dollar no-bid contract.

He could get Halliburton billion dollar contracts without a war. Claiming that was a reason for the war trivializes the actual thought process that led to it.