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The latest FT investigation into Wirecard features some brilliant on the ground reporting from @stef_palma, who visited its listed partners in Manila, found a bus company, empty warehouse, lot of confused people. ft.com/content/cd1239…
Those partners shine a light on the business Wirecard refers to internally as "third party referring", expected to contribute half of sales in 2018. A quarter of revenues were forecast to come from "acquiring", according to information from whistleblowers.
Long time readers will also notice today's piece brings us all the way back to some of the topics covered in the first two pieces in the House of Wirecard series, published in 2015.
Post one on FT Alphaville looked at undisclosed and unusual aspects of Wirecard's Asian acquisition spree, funded by half a billion euros of shareholder money. ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/04/27/212…
Systems at Work is what became Wirecard Singapore, and the €12m side deal for customer relationships we queried at the time turns out to have been a portfolio of of payments processing for Japanese porn sites. See 2015 post and today's piece: 
Christopher Bauer, the former Wirecard employee turned bus and payments entrepreneur featured in today's piece, also played a role at Ashazi Services, a Bahrain based payment outfit which we looked into here ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/05/05/212…
Mr Bauer worked at Ashazi in 2011. Here's how he's described his roles at Ashazi, Centurion Online Payments International, PayEasy and Froehlich Tours.
And what was it which led the FT to Bahrain in October 2014, and started its reporting into Wirecard?
A Wirecard business in Singapore had booked millions of euros of sales to Ashazi in 2011, but auditors qualified their opinion on the accounts because the money didn't show up.
A Wirecard business in Singapore had booked millions of euros of sales to Ashazi in 2011, but auditors qualified their opinion on the accounts because the money didn't show up.
The following year Wirecard switched auditors in Singapore to EY.
Incidentally, the last set of audited accounts available for Wirecard Singapore are those for the 2016 calendar year, which weren't filed until June 2018.
Incidentally, the last set of audited accounts available for Wirecard Singapore are those for the 2016 calendar year, which weren't filed until June 2018.
