PIZON, TRESHA MAE BSA-3 3153 ACCTG 203

Wirecard, a starting tech company began last 1999 in Munich, Germany. Due to their
innovative perspective towards cashless transactions, this company skyrocketed to stardom in a
very short span of time. From being an intermediary between consumers and billers, Wirecard
ventured into online banking having lending operations like issuance of credit cards. Their CEO,
Markus Braun, pinpointed their eagerness for change and development as well as having a strong
facade. So it is quite surprising to see this booming corporation drop its share price from 100 to
negative 2 dollars in less than two weeks. This captured my attention more.

One thing that puts me off is Braun's obsession with the words "innovation" and "strong".
I think he is just striving hard without evaluating the company's capability and resources. He
shifted from German to English even though the majority of their employees aren't fluent in the
said language. Aiming big is fine but our goals should be SMART and I would like to highlight
the term ATTAINABLE for this scenario.

The company's ethics is also in question. Starting with Braun's arrogant approach by
making a barrier between him and his subordinates. He made the rest of the company feel that he
is the king and that only the executive officers can come inside his office or even step foot on his
floor. In addition, Wirecard is linked to these allegations:

1. They had a massive hacking operation against those analysts who scrutinized the company by
spamming their computers.
2. Lie about using Artificial intelligence
3. Money laundering in 2016
4. Claimed the money is missing although it is inexistent in the first place

Way back in 2008, Ernst and Young disclosed that the balance sheet of Wirecard does not
add up and there is something fishy. After which skepticism grew profoundly and all the above
said allegations were proven true subsequently especially when KPMG released their audit report
last April 2020. Furthermore, some investigators went to our country, the Philippines, and
discovered their fraudulent claims.

With this, I could say that this is indeed a very big scandal and I am now having trust issues
with companies that sound too good to be true.