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Downloaded from
YTS.MX
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In Autumn 2019,
I got a call from a source.
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX
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He asks me,
"Have you ever looked into Wirecard?"
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"The payment processor? No."
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"It's a very strange company."
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"Companies are being set up."
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"Money comes in, money goes out."
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That is totally spooky.
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He'd been called by foreign friends
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who used to work in intelligence agencies,
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and they warned him,
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"Are you interested in Wirecard?"
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"Keep your hands off it."
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Scandal involving a German
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digital payments company, Wirecard.
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Mr. Braun, reports about your business
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read like a financial thriller.
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How do you
simply miss a couple of billion dollars?
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Bogus sales,
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balance sheet manipulations,
many allegations.
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How bad is it going to get?
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Money laundering, gambling, porn,
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helping terrorist organizations.
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It was
the Financial Times versus Wirecard.
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-They were trying to find information,
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and then Wirecard were trying
to find information back.
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It was a total deepfake.
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It looked like a bank,
but it was actually a robbery.
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The former COO,
Jan Marsalek, is on the run.
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The biggest fraud scandal
in German history.
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There's
an international manhunt for Jan Marsalek.
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It's unbelievable how something
like this can survive for so long.
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It was clear to me
this was going to be a huge story.
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Scammers take advantage
of people's desires.
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In Germany, the desire was,
"We want to be at the front of the pack."
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Germany's industry is extremely successful
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but very old, very traditional.
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These famous German brands
like Siemens, Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen,
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these are all very old companies.
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That's why German politicians
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and German business people
are often asked,
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"Where are actually your new companies?"
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We want a major, global,
digital champion of our own
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like in Silicon Valley.
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The German Google, the German Facebook.
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And Wirecard played
on that desire beautifully.
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Discover Wirecard.
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We develop financial technologies
that make payments mobile, seamless,
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and almost invisible.
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Partner up with Wirecard,
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the world's leading innovation driver
in digital financial technology.
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He's a hero, a rock star.
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Please give a very warm welcome
to the CEO and CTO of Wirecard,
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Dr. Markus Braun.
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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
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Wirecard was like the German PayPal.
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And in one sentence,
that's our business model.
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Wirecard the processor
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for online trade, online shops.
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They make sure when I buy something,
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the money gets from my credit card
to the online retailer.
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It's not about owning data,
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but it's about the algorithms
that deliver a value out of data.
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There's a company founder dressed
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in a black turtleneck
with a neat turn of phrase…
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The business model delivers a value-add,
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and where there is a value-add,
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you have the money to reinvent.
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…who presents himself as a visionary.
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The "Steve Jobs of the Alps."
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My name is Martin Osterloh.
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I worked for Wirecard for 16 years.
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When I joined in 2005,
we were about 130, 150 people.
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When I left Wirecard,
there were over 6,500 individuals.
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Wirecard is one of
the fastest-growing
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financial commerce platforms.
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When at Wirecard,
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there was an extremely proud sense
of being a big German technology company.
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Wirecard jumped
on the digital train in the '90s
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that continues to pick up speed,
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and now Wirecard
has even overtaken Deutsche Bank
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with their worth placed
at over €20 billion.
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A symbol
for the new era of the finance sector.
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This was a company on the rise.
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It grew unlike any other company
we'd seen in Germany.
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And that rise, that immense growth,
led many people to believe in it.
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New, successful,
global, profitable
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and German politicians were proud
to be able to say,
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"Hey. We have a FinTech company!"
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When the chancellor went to China,
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she actually campaigned
for Wirecard in 2019 with Xi Jinping.
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Everyone in Germany
believed in this company.
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No one would have believed
that this was the work of gangsters.
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Being a journalist,
you get to do all sorts of things
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which you're not supposed to.
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You're exposing secrets.
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The first time
I ever heard the word Wirecard,
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I was looking for dodgy companies
to write about.
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Corporate frauds, things like that,
because they make great stories.
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I was chatting
to this Australian hedge-fund manager.
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He's like, "So would you be interested
in some German gangsters?"
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I think he looked to the accounts
and thought it was a fraud.
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So I made a note,
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"Wirecard, something to look into."
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From the outside,
it looked like a legitimate enterprise.
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I mean, it had 6,000 people.
It had offices.
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The profits were great.
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And so I think
it just sort of fitted into this,
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"Online payments.
That's growing quickly, isn't it?"
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But this big pile of documents,
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which showed all these deals
Wirecard had done in Asia,
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and something about them
just seemed a bit off,
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that they didn't quite seem real.
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Outside of Europe,
we see a growth of 25%
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strongly driven by new regions,
by developing regions of Asia.
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Wirecard didn't appear
to grow by adding customers,
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like Spotify might add subscribers.
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It was buying its growth
by buying businesses, mostly in Asia.
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But, basically, the numbers don't add up.
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-I tried to talk to Wirecard.
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They were like, "We're very busy dealing
with our results. We can't talk to you."
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Normal companies don't do that
when Financial Times knocks on the door.
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So, I persisted.
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Eventually, they put Markus Braun
on the phone.
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"We are a software company
which has a bank as a daughter."
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There were many weird things
about that conversation.
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Wirecard always had the same playbook
each time it was criticized.
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It would say that the critics
were in league with short sellers
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seeking to manipulate the share price.
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My name is Tobias Bosler,
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and I have been,
for many years, a short seller.
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Most people invest
thinking a share price will rise.
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A short seller differs from an investor
by making money when a share price falls
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and loses money when it increases.
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The narrative
that's given around short sellers
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is that they're there to just drive
the share prices down on companies
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to seek a profit.
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Certain areas of the investment community
would probably view short sellers
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as loosely affiliated
with some sort of financial terrorist.
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Now, the reality of the situation
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is that most short sellers
would take a short position
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because they think fundamentally
a stock is overvalued.
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We are short sellers.
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In fact, we're the only "short only,
woman only" fund out there in the world.
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We exclusively make money
by betting against stocks,
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betting that the prices
of those stocks will fall.
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And we gain our conviction
around these bets
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by doing a lot of deep investigative work
to make sure that we're right.
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I mean, it's a lot like being
a financial detective.
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I mean, what we look at are companies
that we think are generally up to no good.
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I investigated Wirecard for two years.
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I understood its business model perfectly.
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It handled payments for online businesses
in pornography and online gambling,
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but it wasn't illegal.
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It was certainly
a big part of what we did,
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and it made the company very strong
at the beginning.
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Everything from poker companies,
casinos, bingo,
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certainly also pornography.
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But we didn't call them porn.
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What would you call them?
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Emotional content.
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-Are you joking?
-I'm not joking.
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The poker market in the US
was 50% of the global poker market.
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But that all changed in 2006
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when a new law in America made it illegal
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to handle payments
for US citizens playing poker.
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So Wirecard lost a major source of income.
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But, in spite of this law,
the profits of Wirecard kept rising.
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What company is able to do that?
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This can't be right.
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We're trying to write
the story, but it was complicated.
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I'd go backwards and forwards
and basically got nothing.
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At that point, I'd given up
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because nobody seemed interested
in the Wirecard story.
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And then I get this phone call.
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So I went to meet this guy, Matt Earl.
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I think he rang me up and said,
"Hey. Do you wanna go meet for lunch?"
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He was a short seller.
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And also he wrote blogs about frauds.
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This thing called Zatarra.
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The first time
I became aware of Wirecard
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was when a reader of the blog that I wrote
reached out to me to say,
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"Have you looked at this German payments
business, Wirecard?"
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There was allegations
that Wirecard had been involved
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in a money-laundering operation
in Florida.
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There was press reports
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that they had been processing
unlawful gambling-related monies
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into the United States.
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That was illegal.
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So I thought, "Let's have a look at this."
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The meeting was
in a Japanese restaurant in the city.
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And so we sort of sit down,
you know, order, and it's like,
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"Okay. What's going on?"
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And Matt sort of slides under the table,
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I think it was a Tesco carrier bag full,
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this big sheaf of documents
about that thick.
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And then he explained
this is the Zatarra report.
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This is what he's been working on.
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There's 120 pages of this stuff.
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And the core of the Zatarra allegation
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was everyone thinks Wirecard is this
big payment processor doing legit things,
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and actually the heart of its business
is laundering money for criminals.
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Money laundering is taking the proceeds
of crime and cleaning the money.
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If you rob a bank
and have a big bag full of cash,
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you might launder the money by making
it look like you earned the money.
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And Wirecard was doing this
for various online businesses,
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but the principle is the same.
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What Wirecard would do
is if it was contentious,
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say like gambling or porn,
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miscode the transaction as something else.
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Instead of putting a payment
as gambling, it might go,
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"Actually, this is a florist."
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Wirecard could get away with it
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by taking advantage of various
little weaknesses in the system.
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All the transactions would come
into the United States
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via a UK company called Bluetool,
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based in Consett, County Durham.
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Consett is this little,
depressed ex-mining town up on the moors.
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Now, you'd think that a company
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that is sending hundreds of millions
of dollars over to the US
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would have a significant office presence.
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This was someone's house.
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That seems sort of odd.
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It is exactly like Ozark.
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It's an out-of-the-way place
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where they could launder
huge amounts of money.
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We were approached
by somebody from up the street
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from where we used to live.
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And they asked if we just wanted
to have some free money.
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They said all you had to do
was to sign your name,
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and when you signed your name,
you got 50 quid.
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The people who were listed
as the directors of these companies
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had no idea about them.
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But really, that company would be a shell
to hide the real owner,
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which was, you know, a gambling website.
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I mean, all you were told at the time
was that you would get letters
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and all you had to do was post them back,
and that's all we've ever had to do.
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So you've got a German bank
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moving money through the north of England
in this remote, little town
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for all these dodgy businesses elsewhere
in the world.
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We're talking about maybe
billions of dollars hidden in the shadows.
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And it just happened to be this little,
red-brick town in the north of England
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was the perfect channel
to make it look legit.
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They had literally set up
the whole infrastructure
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to permit laundering of money
to take place.
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So in my mind,
that rendered Wirecard worthless
248
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:48,840
because this was an illegal operation.
249
00:17:48,920 --> 00:17:50,920
So yeah. I started shorting the company.
250
00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:00,240
The idea was that I would go away
and do my own work,
251
00:18:00,320 --> 00:18:03,280
and then Matt Earl's Zatarra report
would come out.
252
00:18:03,360 --> 00:18:05,360
And then I could go,
"I've checked all of this."
253
00:18:05,440 --> 00:18:07,320
"Look, there's some interesting parts
from it."
254
00:18:11,440 --> 00:18:15,000
What I should have said is,
"Matt Earl is a short seller."
255
00:18:15,080 --> 00:18:17,560
These people have bet against
the Wirecard share price,
256
00:18:17,640 --> 00:18:21,000
so they have a big interest
in pushing the price down.
257
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:22,520
So read it with that in mind.
258
00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:28,440
We highlight
the wrongdoings of companies.
259
00:18:28,960 --> 00:18:32,280
And there is, obviously, a profit element
to it because if we're right,
260
00:18:32,360 --> 00:18:35,600
then we make a return
on the capital that we've risked.
261
00:18:37,040 --> 00:18:40,400
When the Zatarra report came out,
I sort of dashed back to the office.
262
00:18:40,480 --> 00:18:43,440
I was like, "I've got to tell everyone,
and I want the scoop."
263
00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:46,320
And so I wrote this quick piece.
264
00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:48,200
I was in too much of a hurry,
265
00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:52,120
and I didn't really stop to think
how the whole thing would look.
266
00:18:52,760 --> 00:18:57,360
The Zatarra report had an immediate impact
on Wirecard's share price,
267
00:18:57,440 --> 00:19:03,840
which fell, but it fell a lot further
after Dan published his post,
268
00:19:03,920 --> 00:19:06,280
drawing attention to the Zatarra report.
269
00:19:07,800 --> 00:19:12,800
From that one post,
a billion euros or more just vanish,
270
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:17,040
and that put us immediately in hot water.
271
00:19:21,160 --> 00:19:24,760
The moment I realized that Wirecard
was going to be a troubling story
272
00:19:24,840 --> 00:19:27,440
was when
the first lawyers' letters came in.
273
00:19:27,520 --> 00:19:31,800
They were raising questions
about the relationship
274
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,640
between Dan and the authors
of the Zatarra report.
275
00:19:35,720 --> 00:19:37,280
And there was this allegation
276
00:19:37,360 --> 00:19:40,320
that somehow Dan was colluding
with short sellers,
277
00:19:40,400 --> 00:19:43,760
people who are essentially betting
against the company's share price.
278
00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:49,200
Uh, that's a pretty serious charge
because it's essentially suggesting
279
00:19:49,280 --> 00:19:52,920
that one of the journalists has been
involved in share-price manipulation.
280
00:19:53,000 --> 00:19:54,000
That's serious.
281
00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:00,640
In Germany,
short sellers have a bad reputation.
282
00:20:03,440 --> 00:20:06,760
The perception is because they are betting
on the share price dropping,
283
00:20:06,840 --> 00:20:09,960
they are actively seeking
to destroy companies.
284
00:20:10,040 --> 00:20:13,640
Jobs are lost and that can't be good.
285
00:20:15,320 --> 00:20:18,480
The Zatarra Report
wasn't seen as credible.
286
00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:21,800
The criticism was always,
"What kind of report is this?"
287
00:20:21,880 --> 00:20:24,680
"There isn't enough evidence
to back up its claims."
288
00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:26,560
"It's just mud-slinging
289
00:20:27,760 --> 00:20:31,280
because German companies
do not make mistakes."
290
00:20:33,120 --> 00:20:37,960
It was seen very strongly as an attack
on Germany itself, on German companies.
291
00:20:41,040 --> 00:20:45,040
We were suddenly
under attack from all directions.
292
00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:50,960
We had legal threats coming in,
anonymous phone calls just abusing us.
293
00:20:51,040 --> 00:20:55,480
And it was unlike anything
we'd had previously.
294
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:56,760
It was relentless.
295
00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,160
Twitter's just this whole total,
other free-for-all.
296
00:21:02,240 --> 00:21:06,720
So you get people going, "Yeah.
You're a criminal, McCrum. Go to jail."
297
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:12,880
Then occasionally, there'd be threats.
298
00:21:14,600 --> 00:21:17,080
"You're gonna get
what's coming to you," sort of thing.
299
00:21:20,120 --> 00:21:23,560
There was a vehicle
that was parked outside my house
300
00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:25,440
that started following me.
301
00:21:28,960 --> 00:21:30,480
It was very unnerving.
302
00:21:34,520 --> 00:21:36,920
I had the license plates noted down,
303
00:21:38,720 --> 00:21:41,200
and that led back
to investigative agencies
304
00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:42,960
that were working for Wirecard.
305
00:21:47,280 --> 00:21:51,720
And then one day, Paul says
that somebody's been trying to listen in
306
00:21:51,800 --> 00:21:53,680
to conversations in my office.
307
00:21:55,840 --> 00:21:58,480
I said, "How?"
And he says, "Across the bridge."
308
00:22:02,200 --> 00:22:03,840
He spotted this person.
309
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:07,040
Unbelievable, with a lookout.
310
00:22:07,560 --> 00:22:09,840
And they got
this highly sensitive listening device
311
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:11,960
across the Thames into my office.
312
00:22:18,200 --> 00:22:20,240
What the bloody hell's going on?
313
00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,200
A few weeks
after I opened the short position,
314
00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:44,520
I got a call from the Wirecard lawyer.
315
00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:49,040
He says, "You are short-selling Wirecard."
316
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:51,800
I thought, "How did you figure that out?"
317
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:55,560
He read me all the transactions.
318
00:22:55,640 --> 00:22:58,840
Date, time, amount, rate.
319
00:23:01,760 --> 00:23:05,000
He knew everything.
Then he says, "We need to talk."
320
00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:09,880
He arrived with two thugs.
321
00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:16,560
They looked exactly
as you imagine thugs to be.
322
00:23:16,640 --> 00:23:18,320
Straightaway they pushed me
323
00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:24,440
and punched the wall with full force.
324
00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:29,080
I admit I was really scared.
325
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:37,440
What company sends a bunch of thugs
to an investor's office?
326
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:44,040
After that,
I stopped looking into Wirecard.
327
00:23:44,120 --> 00:23:45,040
I let it be.
328
00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:49,800
And no one else looked closely
into Wirecard,
329
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:53,000
except Dan McCrum.
330
00:23:57,680 --> 00:23:59,880
I'd been looking at Wirecard
331
00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:02,560
for a year-and-a-half at that point
when Zatarra came out.
332
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:04,440
And so I was like,
333
00:24:04,520 --> 00:24:07,960
"Surely regulators, investors
are gonna look at this and go,
334
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:10,320
'There's so much dirt.
We've got to look into it.'"
335
00:24:11,880 --> 00:24:13,560
But nothing ever came of it.
336
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:21,760
Immediately,
the stock price rebounded.
337
00:24:22,800 --> 00:24:27,120
My dear shareholders…
338
00:24:28,040 --> 00:24:30,560
Dr. Braun
had the trust of the employees,
339
00:24:30,640 --> 00:24:32,720
but he never looked relaxed.
340
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:39,200
He looked like a business consultant
in a room of people having a party.
341
00:24:39,280 --> 00:24:42,040
…from these added values
for the consumer.
342
00:24:42,120 --> 00:24:44,640
But when Dr. Braun was near,
343
00:24:44,720 --> 00:24:47,040
Jan Marsalek was not far away.
344
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:56,360
Jan was hyper-cool.
345
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:01,360
He was mentored by Dr. Braun.
346
00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,000
You had the feeling that Braun was proud
347
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:08,040
to have a fellow Austrian
that he could mentor
348
00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:11,960
and be his right-hand guy
within the company.
349
00:25:15,280 --> 00:25:17,920
Well, if I find a weak spot, but I'm…
350
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:20,800
Jan just oozed confidence.
351
00:25:21,880 --> 00:25:25,400
He had very strong command of situations.
352
00:25:25,480 --> 00:25:27,560
It's not working. It's not cold enough.
353
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:33,960
I didn't have a quarter of the confidence
that he had at a snip of a finger.
354
00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:36,480
Wirecard does not operate as an acquirer.
355
00:25:36,560 --> 00:25:38,720
Um, it can work with partners
in the background.
356
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:44,480
When you ask him if he had
a few minutes of his valuable time,
357
00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:47,080
he would always say, "For you, always."
358
00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:49,880
But he would say that to almost everyone.
359
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:55,320
Marsalek is a completely different type.
360
00:25:55,400 --> 00:25:58,440
Extremely charming,
361
00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:02,440
very approachable, a great communicator.
362
00:26:03,040 --> 00:26:05,880
Everything Braun didn't have,
Marsalek had,
363
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,320
which is why they were a great team.
364
00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:15,480
I think that very few people knew
who Jan Marsalek really was.
365
00:26:17,720 --> 00:26:20,520
He is certainly
at the center of this scandal.
366
00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:24,320
He is the one
who made sure that the turnover
367
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:28,000
was always the way his boss,
Braun, wanted.
368
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:41,560
The German Stock Exchange
is richer because of one company.
369
00:26:41,640 --> 00:26:45,080
The payment-processing company,
Wirecard, from Aschheim near Munich
370
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,800
has made the leap
into the stock market premier league.
371
00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:53,280
Wirecard's share price last year
was €77.40.
372
00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:57,040
Today it stands at €189.40.
373
00:26:57,120 --> 00:27:00,400
Our figures tell a story
of strong growth.
374
00:27:00,480 --> 00:27:04,440
How our business is valued
is a question for the investors.
375
00:27:05,240 --> 00:27:08,680
Wirecard has shaken up
the German stock exchange this week
376
00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:12,080
and kicked the Commerzbank
out of the elite DAX index.
377
00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,200
It's about
making the cake much bigger.
378
00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,760
I'm in the business
of making the cake much bigger.
379
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,400
I've got a German CEO here
of the company Wirecard.
380
00:27:23,480 --> 00:27:25,920
Um, and today, Markus Braun,
381
00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:28,360
you guys are gonna replace
Commerzbank, in the DAX.
382
00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,120
You're gonna be one of the big companies
on the benchmark index here.
383
00:27:32,200 --> 00:27:33,600
What does that mean to you?
384
00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,240
I think it brings a lot
of awareness, positive awareness.
385
00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:37,880
Uh, it's good for investors.
386
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:42,440
But of course, in operative terms,
it doesn't change our strong strategy.
387
00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:45,960
A lot of investors
believe in German values,
388
00:27:46,040 --> 00:27:48,760
and now it has the DAX seal of approval.
389
00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:51,200
So a lot of people thought a DAX company
390
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:56,680
would be tightly regulated
by the German authorities.
391
00:27:57,600 --> 00:28:00,400
Who wouldn't be thrilled
to have money invested in Wirecard?
392
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:09,440
Wirecard, at the time,
393
00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,840
was a big talking point
throughout the London market.
394
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:17,360
We'd had legal complaints,
but we brushed them off.
395
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:23,640
A while later, I was having lunch
with one of my stock-market sources,
396
00:28:23,720 --> 00:28:25,640
and Wirecard came up.
397
00:28:26,360 --> 00:28:30,320
He said, "You know
that they will pay you a lot of money
398
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:32,160
to stop writing about them."
399
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,320
And I laughed,
and I said, "Don't be stupid."
400
00:28:35,400 --> 00:28:37,120
He said, "No, no, no. Definitely."
401
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:40,840
"They will pay you good money
not to write about them."
402
00:28:41,680 --> 00:28:44,680
And he said, "Look. Go and talk to Gary."
403
00:28:46,320 --> 00:28:48,040
-Gary and Tom.
-Gary. I'm Tom.
404
00:28:50,160 --> 00:28:52,880
-What's with the glasses?
-Best without glasses.
405
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:54,880
Is it? I thought they look cool.
406
00:28:58,760 --> 00:29:02,480
Gary is a great, old mate,
very active trader.
407
00:29:03,120 --> 00:29:05,880
You know, he had a good ear
for what was happening.
408
00:29:05,960 --> 00:29:07,280
And he basically said,
409
00:29:07,360 --> 00:29:10,440
"What's this stuff
you've been writing about Wirecard?"
410
00:29:10,520 --> 00:29:12,400
"Are you sure it's right?"
411
00:29:12,480 --> 00:29:17,160
And Gary says, "'Cause I've got
a guy here who says it's all wrong."
412
00:29:17,240 --> 00:29:19,360
"Actually, he wants to talk to you."
413
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,480
And I said, "Well, who is it?"
414
00:29:22,560 --> 00:29:25,200
"It's a guy called Jan Marsalek."
415
00:29:27,960 --> 00:29:30,600
I could've fallen off my chair.
416
00:29:32,480 --> 00:29:34,960
You know,
Gary was a confidential source of mine.
417
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:39,080
How did Marsalek find out
that we knew each other?
418
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,920
It would have been around 2017.
419
00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:51,400
One of my good friends came into the bar
where I usually get my breakfast
420
00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:54,600
and had a little Post-It note
with a number on,
421
00:29:54,680 --> 00:29:56,280
and a name, Jan Marsalek,
422
00:29:56,360 --> 00:30:00,200
and said, "Can you call this fella?
It will be worth your while."
423
00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:04,680
Didn't know what it meant at the time.
It's odd, but we might make some money.
424
00:30:04,760 --> 00:30:06,400
We'll have a try.
425
00:30:07,040 --> 00:30:08,760
So I phoned up and he said to me,
426
00:30:08,840 --> 00:30:12,680
"Look. I'm prepared to pay you
a very substantial amount of money
427
00:30:12,760 --> 00:30:16,200
to introduce me
to your good friend, Paul Murphy."
428
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:19,960
I said, "I'll talk to Paul."
429
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,640
Gary says, "This guy,
Jan Marsalek, is desperate to meet you."
430
00:30:24,720 --> 00:30:29,720
"He will get on a plane and come to London
for lunch at the drop of a hat."
431
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:33,400
The immediate thought
was this is some sort of setup.
432
00:30:33,480 --> 00:30:37,040
Because it's such a strange,
uh, thing to happen.
433
00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:39,080
So I said yes to the lunch.
434
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:47,640
Basically, we wanted to see
whether Marsalek would offer me money
435
00:30:47,720 --> 00:30:50,120
to stop writing about Wirecard.
436
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:51,720
That was the plan.
437
00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,600
I was introduced to Jan Marsalek
for the first time.
438
00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:04,320
He was obviously very sharp,
439
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:07,560
very careful in what he said.
440
00:31:09,440 --> 00:31:10,800
On first impressions,
441
00:31:10,880 --> 00:31:15,840
I was looking at a very well-dressed,
articulate, straight-talking man.
442
00:31:17,080 --> 00:31:19,680
It was the Financial Times
versus Wirecard.
443
00:31:19,760 --> 00:31:23,000
They were trying to find
any sort of information on Wirecard.
444
00:31:23,080 --> 00:31:25,600
And then Wirecard were trying
to find information back.
445
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:28,040
It was quite awkward.
446
00:31:29,320 --> 00:31:33,240
He talked at length
about how he had direct experience
447
00:31:33,320 --> 00:31:38,080
of journalists who were taking bribes
to write negative articles.
448
00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:43,240
I told him I'd never accepted a bribe,
449
00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:45,280
and he said, "I know that, Paul."
450
00:31:45,360 --> 00:31:48,120
"I've seen evidence
that you've never accepted a bribe."
451
00:31:48,200 --> 00:31:51,200
And I thought,
"Ah, you've been through my bank account."
452
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:52,440
Uh, and he clearly had.
453
00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:56,520
I kind of realized, at that point,
454
00:31:56,600 --> 00:32:01,480
that he wasn't going to suddenly offer me
a bag of cash there at the table.
455
00:32:01,560 --> 00:32:03,720
There were too many people
around the table.
456
00:32:06,800 --> 00:32:10,680
It ended in Jan saying,
"I'm very happy that Paul's listened."
457
00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:12,880
Paul said,
"We're gonna draw a line under this,
458
00:32:12,960 --> 00:32:15,800
and FT will not keep regurgitating
this old stuff."
459
00:32:15,880 --> 00:32:18,720
"However, if there's new stuff,
460
00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:19,880
we will nail you."
461
00:32:20,520 --> 00:32:22,160
And Jan was smiling.
462
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:26,600
"That's not gonna happen
because we're doing nothing wrong."
463
00:32:27,960 --> 00:32:32,600
At that point,
I negotiated a fee for my PR.
464
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:37,200
I asked for a set fee of 500,000 euros.
465
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:43,680
He settled
on 32-and-a-half thousand euros a month
466
00:32:43,760 --> 00:32:44,680
for six months,
467
00:32:44,760 --> 00:32:47,760
but said, "Look. Can you keep me
in contact with the short sellers,
468
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:49,520
just so I know what's going on?"
469
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,560
And I felt a little bit like
a double agent, but Paul knew,
470
00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:53,960
and Jan knew.
471
00:33:00,400 --> 00:33:02,560
I launched
Safkhet Capital Management
472
00:33:02,640 --> 00:33:04,280
in January of 2018.
473
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:08,520
We were just doing our own research,
looking for opportunities,
474
00:33:08,600 --> 00:33:12,360
and a name
that came up consistently was Wirecard.
475
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:17,520
Because, finally, Wirecard is making
its first foray onto US soil.
476
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:29,360
Over 20-plus years, we've emerged
as a leader in payment solutions
477
00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,160
in North America and beyond.
478
00:33:31,240 --> 00:33:33,320
What was new at that time
was the fact
479
00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:37,760
that Wirecard had acquired Citi's
North American prepaid-card business.
480
00:33:38,800 --> 00:33:43,600
Prepaid cards are a very effective way
of laundering cash internationally,
481
00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:45,480
including dirty money.
482
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,800
You don't need to put your name
on the card or open a bank account.
483
00:33:49,880 --> 00:33:52,800
You can just have a card
with the Wirecard logo.
484
00:33:52,880 --> 00:33:56,920
The amount of criminal activity
that could go on is alarming.
485
00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:01,440
That was something
that we wanted to really dig into
486
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:06,200
and see if there was anything that related
to these allegations in Zatarra
487
00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:09,400
that would now be occurring
on American soil.
488
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:16,080
Wirecard's offices
were in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania,
489
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:18,000
which is two hours from New York City.
490
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:21,440
So we decided
why not just drive over there
491
00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:23,280
in Christina's beat-up…
492
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:25,320
…little Volkswagen?
493
00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:36,680
We saw the Wirecard signs,
494
00:34:36,760 --> 00:34:39,120
and then there was no security,
495
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:40,640
so we just walked up the stairs.
496
00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:45,440
It was very large.
497
00:34:45,520 --> 00:34:48,240
Really, it should maybe fit 600 people…
498
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,000
-A lot, yes.
-…but there were maybe 30 people.
499
00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:53,680
And then they asked us what we wanted,
500
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:57,760
and we said that we wanted to speak
to someone about buying prepaid cards.
501
00:34:57,840 --> 00:35:02,880
He assured me that it's all very easy,
I could give those cards to who I wanted.
502
00:35:02,960 --> 00:35:04,000
It's not a problem.
503
00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:08,280
And then he said I could even get cards
up to $150,000
504
00:35:09,480 --> 00:35:11,000
on a single card.
505
00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,040
This was a massive shock.
506
00:35:15,120 --> 00:35:17,200
And when we checked on the dark web
507
00:35:17,280 --> 00:35:20,600
to buy prepaid cards that are
being resold on the dark web,
508
00:35:20,680 --> 00:35:23,040
the most you can get is $10,000.
509
00:35:24,720 --> 00:35:28,720
Fall of 2018,
where I finally just pinged Dan McCrum.
510
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,880
And said, "Hey.
We're looking at Wirecard in the US."
511
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:36,560
"I think we have something here."
512
00:35:41,840 --> 00:35:44,280
Fahmi wasn't
the only short seller who contacted me
513
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:46,200
after Wirecard entered the DAX.
514
00:35:46,840 --> 00:35:49,800
I was bombarded
with ideas by short sellers.
515
00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:52,120
Some of them were obsessed
with money laundering.
516
00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:55,440
Others were convinced
that Wirecard's business couldn't be real.
517
00:35:57,160 --> 00:35:59,960
The problem was
that none of them had any proof.
518
00:36:00,040 --> 00:36:03,640
They were all theories,
but then-- when was it?
519
00:36:03,720 --> 00:36:07,720
Sort of one Monday morning in October,
I get this funny email from Singapore.
520
00:36:09,040 --> 00:36:12,120
Criminal behavior
at a big financial company.
521
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:13,960
Wirecard.
522
00:36:15,760 --> 00:36:18,680
And so I get in touch
with Stefania Palma in Singapore.
523
00:36:27,280 --> 00:36:31,800
In Singapore,
Wirecard was just absolutely pervasive.
524
00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:35,640
Thousands of shops,
and merchants, and hotels
525
00:36:35,720 --> 00:36:38,760
were using Wirecard's card machines.
526
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:44,800
Dan became aware
that there was a potential whistleblower
527
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:46,880
who had a lot of information
528
00:36:46,960 --> 00:36:49,920
and was very keen
to speak to us as soon as possible.
529
00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,680
The first meeting was at Changi Airport.
530
00:37:01,760 --> 00:37:04,840
Going in,
I knew very little of who I was meeting.
531
00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:07,600
I was definitely very cautious.
532
00:37:09,920 --> 00:37:12,360
I found out his real name is Pav.
533
00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,480
He'd been the head of legal
for Asia at Wirecard.
534
00:37:17,560 --> 00:37:19,760
He had recently left the company
535
00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:24,640
and was full of frustration and anger
536
00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:27,960
in terms of what he had witnessed.
537
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:33,960
It was an extremely intense conversation
that lasted hours.
538
00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:40,320
I realized the overwhelming volume
of information that he had.
539
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:44,120
-I immediately gave Dan a call and said,
540
00:37:44,200 --> 00:37:46,640
"This could be immense for us."
541
00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:49,600
"I hope
that all of this checks out
542
00:37:49,680 --> 00:37:53,000
because if it does,
we're just sitting on gold."
543
00:37:53,560 --> 00:37:54,880
Okay. Holy shit.
544
00:37:54,960 --> 00:37:58,080
This sounds like the real deal.
I think I need to come to Singapore.
545
00:38:09,600 --> 00:38:12,960
We met out in the open
underneath Wirecard's old building.
546
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:18,280
We were extremely paranoid
about Wirecard's hacking capabilities.
547
00:38:19,560 --> 00:38:23,080
We sort of relied on the fact
that the fountain covered the noise.
548
00:38:24,760 --> 00:38:28,440
And he literally starts drawing diagrams
of how Wirecard works
549
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:30,040
and who the people are.
550
00:38:31,040 --> 00:38:33,960
And then he explained
how he started working for Wirecard,
551
00:38:34,040 --> 00:38:37,160
he gets contacted
by this woman on the finance team,
552
00:38:37,240 --> 00:38:39,480
and she tells him this incredible story.
553
00:38:41,360 --> 00:38:44,480
She'd been called into a room
in the Wirecard offices
554
00:38:44,560 --> 00:38:46,120
with the rest of the finance team.
555
00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:49,360
And her boss is this Indonesian guy
called Edo Kurniawan.
556
00:38:50,040 --> 00:38:52,840
And he's really young
for the job. He's only 33.
557
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:56,240
And if you looked at his CV,
there's basically nothing there.
558
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:59,360
But somehow he's running
the Asian finance team,
559
00:38:59,440 --> 00:39:00,800
and that is, by the way,
560
00:39:00,880 --> 00:39:03,560
a very significant portion
of Wirecard's business.
561
00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,040
So this woman goes into the meeting,
562
00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:11,160
and suddenly, what Edo does,
is he starts drawing on a whiteboard.
563
00:39:11,240 --> 00:39:14,000
And he's explaining
how they're gonna cook the books.
564
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:16,160
Almost like that scene where they're like,
565
00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:18,480
"Here's the bank
and you guys will go in here,
566
00:39:18,560 --> 00:39:20,480
and the van will be waiting outside."
567
00:39:20,560 --> 00:39:21,760
Like a bank job.
568
00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:26,040
And so she goes and tells Pav,
the lawyer in Singapore, about it.
569
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:29,640
Immediately Pav says,
"Right. We better look into this."
570
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:31,680
Within a matter of weeks,
571
00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:34,560
there's a full-blown
internal investigation going on.
572
00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:41,160
None of Wirecard's top brass
know anything about it.
573
00:39:41,240 --> 00:39:44,960
And they start finding
all of these dodgy transactions.
574
00:39:45,480 --> 00:39:50,680
So, Pav put together this presentation
for the key guys in Germany.
575
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:53,200
"Look at what we found."
576
00:39:55,720 --> 00:39:58,280
Suddenly the message comes back
from Munich,
577
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:00,400
"Good work, guys.
We'll take it from here."
578
00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:04,840
"Yeah. So we're gonna put Jan Marsalek
in charge of it."
579
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,600
It becomes clear very soon
that nothing's gonna happen.
580
00:40:12,640 --> 00:40:14,960
And then Pav gets forced out,
581
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:20,040
but he takes copies
of the inbox of this guy Edo
582
00:40:21,320 --> 00:40:22,480
and gives it to us.
583
00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:26,040
Seventy gigs worth of data.
584
00:40:38,320 --> 00:40:42,640
As soon as I got back from Singapore,
we knew we had to think about security.
585
00:40:46,760 --> 00:40:50,680
We were very aware
that Wirecard was spying on us.
586
00:40:52,880 --> 00:40:55,200
Dan had to operate in complete secrecy.
587
00:40:56,520 --> 00:40:59,320
We were basically acting
on the basis
588
00:40:59,960 --> 00:41:02,200
that anything on the FT network
589
00:41:02,280 --> 00:41:04,240
was at risk of being compromised.
590
00:41:06,160 --> 00:41:09,160
We got Dan set up
with an air-gapped laptop,
591
00:41:09,240 --> 00:41:13,000
which had the modem ripped out
so that it can't be hacked.
592
00:41:14,200 --> 00:41:20,640
So this pile of documents from Pav,
that went on the super-secure laptop.
593
00:41:21,160 --> 00:41:24,080
So every morning, I have to sign out
the key to the big safe.
594
00:41:24,600 --> 00:41:28,520
The key was about that long, which
gives you a sense of how big the safe was.
595
00:41:28,600 --> 00:41:30,000
It was like a giant fridge.
596
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:34,480
Get out the laptop
and the files that I'm working on,
597
00:41:36,280 --> 00:41:38,200
then go into my own little bunker.
598
00:41:38,720 --> 00:41:42,280
A little room
in the middle of the building in the FT…
599
00:41:44,200 --> 00:41:46,560
and start going
through the material we've got.
600
00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:58,200
Six weeks of every day,
laptop out the safe,
601
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,680
go through all the emails, print them off,
try and work out what's going on.
602
00:42:04,160 --> 00:42:07,320
Okay, right. That's the time.
Close it down again. Back in the safe.
603
00:42:08,160 --> 00:42:10,600
-Start again the next day.
604
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:16,880
I was just following trails
through the emails.
605
00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:24,160
Sticking keyword searches
into Outlook, like "India," "Marsalek."
606
00:42:25,600 --> 00:42:28,560
I had been puzzling
about this company for years
607
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:29,480
and suddenly…
608
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:32,480
it was like I was inside.
609
00:42:38,440 --> 00:42:40,960
I was also trying to get Jan Marsalek.
610
00:42:43,120 --> 00:42:44,200
I'd never met him.
611
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:47,200
I'd never spoken to him,
but I knew he was the enemy.
612
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,520
I just was looking
for anything to try and tie him
613
00:42:52,600 --> 00:42:54,160
to what had happened in Singapore.
614
00:42:58,440 --> 00:43:01,080
I could sort of see
he was always at the edge of it.
615
00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:04,600
Like he was involved,
but I couldn't quite prove it.
616
00:43:08,520 --> 00:43:13,240
But what we can do is we can boil it
just down to Edo Kurniawan,
617
00:43:13,320 --> 00:43:15,480
this guy in the finance team.
618
00:43:18,760 --> 00:43:22,880
But if Wirecard had fired this guy,
Edo, then we didn't have a story.
619
00:44:08,240 --> 00:44:11,400
Edo was there,
and he was working on the audit.
620
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:12,800
It had to be a cover-up.
621
00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:22,880
It goes up online.
622
00:44:24,480 --> 00:44:27,560
Within seconds,
the Wirecard share price crashes.
623
00:44:27,640 --> 00:44:29,560
In the space of three days,
624
00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:33,440
we've knocked eight billion euros
off the value of the company.
625
00:44:33,960 --> 00:44:35,360
Holy shit. The story's working.
626
00:44:36,000 --> 00:44:38,520
That was the first moment
627
00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:42,600
where I felt
that this could get really ugly.
628
00:44:51,360 --> 00:44:57,120
I only heard about
the Financial Times' coverage secondhand.
629
00:44:57,200 --> 00:44:58,280
NEW ATTACK ON WIRECARD
630
00:44:58,360 --> 00:45:00,000
It was the typical bias.
631
00:45:00,080 --> 00:45:04,000
They said, "It is a foreign conspiracy
against a German company."
632
00:45:04,080 --> 00:45:07,160
"A German company is the victim
and must be protected."
633
00:45:09,000 --> 00:45:13,120
Wirecard had hired
a famous lawyer in Bavaria.
634
00:45:15,280 --> 00:45:20,440
The lawyer said
to the public prosecutor, Baumler-Hosl,
635
00:45:20,520 --> 00:45:24,160
that Wirecard is under attack
by short sellers
636
00:45:24,240 --> 00:45:26,320
and its very existence is in jeopardy.
637
00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:31,040
Hildegard Baumler-Hosl contacted
the German financial regulator.
638
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:35,520
The regulator BaFin then said,
"We need to protect Wirecard."
639
00:45:35,600 --> 00:45:39,040
And banned short-selling
of Wirecard shares.
640
00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:44,040
And even filed criminal charges
against Dan McCrum and Stefania Palma.
641
00:45:48,280 --> 00:45:52,120
And I was shocked,
and I called Dan immediately and I said,
642
00:45:52,200 --> 00:45:55,000
"Dan, what the hell is going on?
What is this?"
643
00:45:57,200 --> 00:45:59,200
BaFin,
the German Financial Regulator,
644
00:45:59,280 --> 00:46:00,320
comes out and goes,
645
00:46:00,400 --> 00:46:02,840
"We're going to look
into market manipulation."
646
00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:06,520
What does that mean that they have?
647
00:46:06,600 --> 00:46:10,440
Because we haven't been contacted by them,
we didn't know what the evidence was.
648
00:46:10,520 --> 00:46:14,120
So it's like, "Well, okay.
What's been cooked up to say I'm a crook?"
649
00:46:14,200 --> 00:46:17,360
Because I just don't understand
what's happening here.
650
00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:23,040
I think at the very beginning,
I just truly could not believe that
651
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:27,400
after all the work we'd done,
that we would become the targets.
652
00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:32,720
When you have the regulator one of
653
00:46:32,800 --> 00:46:34,880
the most powerful financial markets
in Europe
654
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:38,600
sending a very clear sign
that they're coming for you,
655
00:46:38,680 --> 00:46:41,360
you can either let that get to you,
656
00:46:41,440 --> 00:46:46,280
or you try to sort of channel
all that rage and frustration
657
00:46:46,360 --> 00:46:47,840
into the investigation,
658
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:51,640
really hitting the story, you know,
the hardest you ever have.
659
00:46:52,840 --> 00:46:55,480
And I think you know
which option we went for.
660
00:47:04,680 --> 00:47:07,800
I'm back in London in the bunker,
carrying on working.
661
00:47:08,560 --> 00:47:11,360
I'd been looking
through Wirecard's customers,
662
00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:14,600
and I started to realize
hundreds of millions of euros
663
00:47:14,680 --> 00:47:16,080
of Wirecard's business
664
00:47:16,800 --> 00:47:19,280
were provided
by just these three partners.
665
00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:24,880
Al Alam, Senjo, and PayEasy.
666
00:47:25,960 --> 00:47:29,320
At that point in time,
these three partner businesses contributed
667
00:47:29,400 --> 00:47:33,360
to something
like half of Wirecard's global sales.
668
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:36,160
One of these partner businesses
was in the Philippines.
669
00:47:36,240 --> 00:47:38,400
Uh, a business called PayEasy.
670
00:47:46,760 --> 00:47:52,160
On paper, PayEasy was
this very important business to Wirecard.
671
00:47:52,240 --> 00:47:55,560
We say to Stefania, "We need to find out
what is going on. Is this real?"
672
00:47:57,800 --> 00:48:02,840
I remember going to this office
covered with logos of both PayEasy
673
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:06,320
and a bus company called Fröhlich Tours.
674
00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:12,560
There were drivers coming in and out.
675
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:15,320
It was clear
that the day-to-day operations
676
00:48:15,400 --> 00:48:17,640
were, in fact, just the bus company.
677
00:48:18,720 --> 00:48:20,920
This looks fishy.
678
00:48:24,520 --> 00:48:27,200
I ended up driving
three hours north of Manila
679
00:48:27,280 --> 00:48:30,880
in this region
that is actually famous for rice fields,
680
00:48:32,080 --> 00:48:36,680
chasing after a company called ConePay,
another partner business for Wirecard.
681
00:48:40,480 --> 00:48:43,120
And we finally find this address.
682
00:48:44,720 --> 00:48:45,960
Someone's house.
683
00:48:49,400 --> 00:48:51,840
This middle-aged man opened the door,
684
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:57,200
and the first thing I see is a table
with a brown Pomeranian
685
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:00,480
and a small white dog.
686
00:49:01,800 --> 00:49:04,520
There were a couple
of middle-aged Filipino men
687
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:07,400
who were just grooming
these dogs.
688
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:11,360
Is this the headquarters
of a payments company?
689
00:49:13,200 --> 00:49:16,920
It was obvious we were standing
in the middle of a family home,
690
00:49:17,000 --> 00:49:19,840
at which point someone remembers,
691
00:49:19,920 --> 00:49:22,600
"Wait. We got this in the mail,"
692
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:25,640
and they hand me an envelope.
693
00:49:27,000 --> 00:49:31,960
I take the paper out and immediately see
Wirecard Bank letterhead,
694
00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:34,160
ConePay,
695
00:49:35,320 --> 00:49:37,680
and the address where we were standing.
696
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:42,160
I froze completely, and I remember shaking
697
00:49:42,240 --> 00:49:47,040
because I knew at that point
that we had cracked the whole thing.
698
00:49:55,120 --> 00:49:57,800
I'd spent years trying
to solve this puzzle.
699
00:50:00,400 --> 00:50:03,160
What is the deal with Wirecard's business?
700
00:50:03,240 --> 00:50:05,280
Is it doing all this money laundering?
701
00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:07,720
Is it juicing its profits?
702
00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:11,520
And suddenly, you're like,
703
00:50:12,760 --> 00:50:13,840
"Holy shit."
704
00:50:14,360 --> 00:50:17,360
"The whole thing's fake.
None of it's real."
705
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:19,920
It's just this incredible bluff.
706
00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:28,720
They came up with this deepfake…
707
00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:34,360
where they were using
these three business partners
708
00:50:34,440 --> 00:50:36,640
to just invent a whole load of business.
709
00:50:38,000 --> 00:50:40,800
From the outside,
it looked like a real company.
710
00:50:40,880 --> 00:50:43,040
Thousands of people
thought they were working
711
00:50:43,120 --> 00:50:45,360
on a legitimate enterprise.
712
00:50:45,960 --> 00:50:47,440
It was the emperor's new clothes.
713
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:52,800
There's been a fresh report
from the FT,
714
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:56,280
and they're talking
about half of your worldwide revenue
715
00:50:56,360 --> 00:50:58,920
and almost all of your reported profits
716
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:03,080
effectively coming
from three opaque partner companies
717
00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:04,240
in recent years.
718
00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:08,320
We do not get distracted
by all of this noise.
719
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:11,840
This financial thriller
continues with the latest punch-up
720
00:51:11,920 --> 00:51:14,040
between Wirecard and the Financial Times.
721
00:51:14,640 --> 00:51:17,520
Dan McCrum, for us, was the devil.
722
00:51:17,600 --> 00:51:21,440
He kept on bringing things out
that made the stock price go down.
723
00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:25,800
In February,
there were new articles and allegations
724
00:51:25,880 --> 00:51:27,640
and the share price fell again.
725
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,800
At the end of March,
new accusations were published
726
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:34,240
and the share price collapsed once again.
727
00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:37,680
A BILLIONAIRE ON THE DEFENSIVE
728
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:40,840
Senior management
at Wirecard very quickly said
729
00:51:40,920 --> 00:51:44,640
that the basis of this report
was completely without merit.
730
00:51:44,720 --> 00:51:47,000
There is a claim
that the Financial Times
731
00:51:47,080 --> 00:51:50,880
deliberately caused the fall
in the Wirecard share price
732
00:51:50,960 --> 00:51:53,200
so that speculators could cash in.
733
00:51:55,240 --> 00:51:58,160
We thought
Dan McCrum was making a quick buck.
734
00:51:58,680 --> 00:52:01,400
They were the bad guys,
and we were the good guys.
735
00:52:02,000 --> 00:52:04,560
-Sound running.
-Okay. Let's start.
736
00:52:05,200 --> 00:52:10,800
How do you personally go about scandals,
confusion, chaos?
737
00:52:10,880 --> 00:52:12,840
Have you ever thought about resigning?
738
00:52:12,920 --> 00:52:14,920
I've never thought
about resignation.
739
00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,760
Can you exclude the possibility
of more dirty laundry airing
740
00:52:17,840 --> 00:52:19,840
that will put the share price
under pressure?
741
00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:23,040
We firmly reject
these serious allegations.
742
00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:28,680
We think these allegations
are mainly market speculations.
743
00:52:30,200 --> 00:52:33,320
At that point,
the FT had run a series
744
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:36,600
of really quite damaging allegations,
745
00:52:36,680 --> 00:52:40,680
but Wirecard's share price just seemed
to go up and up and up.
746
00:52:40,760 --> 00:52:42,480
People loved the company.
747
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:45,360
At the Frankfurt stock exchange,
748
00:52:45,440 --> 00:52:49,600
Wirecard has announced its annual results,
increasing its profits by 35%,
749
00:52:49,680 --> 00:52:52,320
an increase of €350 million,
750
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:54,960
and says it will continue
to grow this year.
751
00:52:55,040 --> 00:52:57,960
Following a move
from the payments giant Wirecard,
752
00:52:58,040 --> 00:52:59,720
shares jumping more than 6% there
753
00:52:59,800 --> 00:53:02,440
after the company landed
a one-billion-dollar investment
754
00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:04,760
from Japan's SoftBank group.
755
00:53:04,840 --> 00:53:09,720
SoftBank investing a billion dollars
in German FinTech company Wirecard.
756
00:53:09,800 --> 00:53:13,320
When news
of the SoftBank investment emerged,
757
00:53:13,400 --> 00:53:14,320
we were dumbfounded.
758
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:16,400
In exchange for a 6% stake,
759
00:53:16,480 --> 00:53:20,000
SoftBank will help the firm expand
to Japan and South Korea.
760
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:21,320
We couldn't believe it.
761
00:53:21,400 --> 00:53:24,800
You know, we had put
what we thought was clear evidence
762
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:27,120
that this was a fraud on the table.
763
00:53:27,720 --> 00:53:32,880
But SoftBank were about
to give this company 900 million euros.
764
00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:39,640
At that point with Dan,
I started discussing
765
00:53:39,720 --> 00:53:44,880
how we were going to actually present
evidence that was overwhelming.
766
00:53:47,480 --> 00:53:49,280
This is a criminal enterprise.
767
00:53:50,640 --> 00:53:54,880
So, Wirecard had to do something…
to stop us.
768
00:53:58,920 --> 00:54:01,480
The next day,
I get a letter from Wirecard saying,
769
00:54:01,560 --> 00:54:05,120
"We've got this tape recording
of this guy called Nick Gold,
770
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:07,640
and he knows that the FT story is coming,
771
00:54:07,720 --> 00:54:11,440
and you're clearly in cahoots,
and you're corrupt."
772
00:54:15,160 --> 00:54:18,440
My first thought was,
"Okay. Uh, this has to be a setup."
773
00:54:19,840 --> 00:54:22,760
"This has got
to be Marsalek's dirty tricks again."
774
00:54:37,840 --> 00:54:39,440
I had no idea who Nick Gold was.
775
00:54:48,000 --> 00:54:49,000
I am Nick Gold.
776
00:54:49,080 --> 00:54:50,680
Catch! That's it!
777
00:54:50,760 --> 00:54:51,760
I'm an investor.
778
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:54,320
A bad investor, but an investor.
779
00:54:56,680 --> 00:54:59,160
I first met Nick Gold by chance.
780
00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:05,880
Gary Kilbey was having drinks
to celebrate his 60th birthday,
781
00:55:05,960 --> 00:55:07,760
and Nick Gold was there.
782
00:55:09,440 --> 00:55:12,600
I remember Paul Murphy.
We were both getting drunk together.
783
00:55:12,680 --> 00:55:16,480
He told me if I needed a journalist,
and I had a story to report, he was one.
784
00:55:16,560 --> 00:55:18,680
Drink as much as you can take, here!
785
00:55:20,200 --> 00:55:24,080
And I phoned him months later,
and said, "Can I see you?"
786
00:55:24,160 --> 00:55:27,520
He says, "I can't do it for two weeks,
'cause I'm stuck on Wirecard."
787
00:55:27,600 --> 00:55:29,520
The minute he said,
"I'm stuck on Wirecard,"
788
00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:31,240
I knew this was a no-brainer scenario.
789
00:55:31,320 --> 00:55:33,480
He'll bring something out.
It can't be positive,
790
00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:35,040
therefore this is free money.
791
00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:38,120
I have to short-sell this company
within an inch of my life.
792
00:55:38,200 --> 00:55:41,480
Which I did to the tune
of hundreds and hundreds of millions.
793
00:55:44,800 --> 00:55:47,760
I've now taken a huge short position
in Wirecard,
794
00:55:47,840 --> 00:55:49,240
which is probably known to them.
795
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:51,160
They're going to see
who the big shorts are.
796
00:55:51,680 --> 00:55:54,040
So they now know Nick Gold
is a massive short seller.
797
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:00,680
I'm then on a beach in Cannes,
798
00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:03,760
dancing on tables
and being a lunatic as I am,
799
00:56:03,840 --> 00:56:05,280
and having a great time.
800
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:08,800
And somebody comes up to me
that I haven't seen in years.
801
00:56:08,880 --> 00:56:09,800
He's a football agent.
802
00:56:09,880 --> 00:56:11,880
I've known him forever.
He worked for me years ago,
803
00:56:11,960 --> 00:56:14,840
and he says he's now gotten
the Kuwaiti National Investment Fund
804
00:56:14,920 --> 00:56:17,400
and they're his partners
and he's got billions of pounds,
805
00:56:17,480 --> 00:56:19,120
they'd like to invest in the stock market.
806
00:56:19,200 --> 00:56:20,600
So could I help?
807
00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:28,000
A few days later, I fly back to London
to meet the Kuwaiti Investment Fund.
808
00:56:31,000 --> 00:56:33,480
Well, what happened is
a magnificent sheikh walked in
809
00:56:33,560 --> 00:56:36,480
and his spokesperson next to him
walked in with my football guy,
810
00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:38,000
and they sat down.
811
00:56:38,080 --> 00:56:40,840
'Cause I'm with my friend,
I thought I could speak openly.
812
00:56:40,920 --> 00:56:44,400
I then tell him there are billions
to be made short selling Wirecard.
813
00:56:44,920 --> 00:56:46,840
And I know the company's going down
814
00:56:46,920 --> 00:56:49,280
because the Financial Times
are writing an article,
815
00:56:49,360 --> 00:56:50,720
and the company is fraudulent,
816
00:56:51,360 --> 00:56:53,760
and that we were going
to build great big ships together.
817
00:56:56,320 --> 00:56:59,200
This was as sheikh as you get.
He stank of affluence.
818
00:56:59,280 --> 00:57:02,320
The man stank of money.
You could tell this is a proper sheikh.
819
00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:03,760
As it turns out, I was wrong.
820
00:57:06,360 --> 00:57:10,200
The sheikh left, and the guys stayed
to facilitate for the sheikh,
821
00:57:10,280 --> 00:57:11,920
and I was left with those two.
822
00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:14,800
-Hey. I'm Nick Gold.
-Hello, Nick. How are you?
823
00:57:14,880 --> 00:57:17,960
What sort of size business
were you thinking of doing?
824
00:57:18,040 --> 00:57:20,520
At the moment,
they are looking at investing €50 million.
825
00:57:20,600 --> 00:57:21,440
Okay.
826
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:25,120
There was a short seller, Nick Gold,
827
00:57:25,200 --> 00:57:30,840
who met with an investor
who secretly recorded him.
828
00:57:31,360 --> 00:57:33,880
This is as good as it gets in terms of--
829
00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:36,000
-We know the article's coming.
Okay.
830
00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:37,640
And I bet it's gonna be today.
831
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:41,240
We know now that this investor
was actually a private detective
832
00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:46,720
who was hired
by someone associated with Wirecard.
833
00:58:06,440 --> 00:58:09,600
So what Wirecard did was--
The sheikh wasn't real. It was fake.
834
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:12,800
The friend of mine,
that paid the guy four million,
835
00:58:12,880 --> 00:58:15,680
he got my four million by the way,
that bastard.
836
00:58:15,760 --> 00:58:18,760
Then I got a text message
from Paul Murphy saying,
837
00:58:18,840 --> 00:58:20,440
"What the fuck have you done?"
838
00:58:21,520 --> 00:58:23,560
This was a complete setup.
839
00:58:24,680 --> 00:58:26,640
Oh, I was furious, absolutely furious
840
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:31,360
because Wirecard's found a way
of presenting evidence
841
00:58:31,440 --> 00:58:35,440
that appeared to show
that I personally was in cahoots
842
00:58:35,520 --> 00:58:38,920
with a guy
who was making money shorting the stock.
843
00:58:43,080 --> 00:58:47,840
Within hours, all this detail
is in the hands of the German press,
844
00:58:47,920 --> 00:58:49,880
who are writing articles saying,
845
00:58:49,960 --> 00:58:53,240
"Here's clear evidence
that the FT's corrupt."
846
00:58:55,640 --> 00:58:58,920
I was pretty pissed off,
actually. Pretty pissed off.
847
00:58:59,000 --> 00:59:01,720
I was confident that we'd been set up,
848
00:59:01,800 --> 00:59:05,520
but I have to protect
the reputation of the FT.
849
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:09,120
You know, I thought,
"Paul you're a brilliant reporter,
850
00:59:09,200 --> 00:59:11,320
but you've done something really dumb."
851
00:59:11,400 --> 00:59:13,840
"You're gonna have
to spend time in the sin bin."
852
00:59:15,000 --> 00:59:19,280
And that meant
a rigorous external legal investigation
853
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,560
to show the world
that there was no truth in that.
854
00:59:24,160 --> 00:59:27,080
That was the first time
that I really felt vulnerable.
855
00:59:27,600 --> 00:59:29,280
You know, we were basically suspended.
856
00:59:30,240 --> 00:59:33,440
So we have to sit and wait
for this investigation to happen.
857
00:59:34,360 --> 00:59:36,880
But then the story gets weirder
and weirder.
858
00:59:44,560 --> 00:59:46,920
I'm Jorg Schmitt
from the Süddeutsche Zeitung.
859
00:59:47,840 --> 00:59:50,840
I'm the chief editor
of the investigations team.
860
00:59:51,360 --> 00:59:56,240
I was at my desk when I suddenly
got a call from an unknown number.
861
00:59:57,160 --> 00:59:59,720
On the other end was a young woman.
862
00:59:59,800 --> 01:00:01,920
She said,
"Are you interested in Wirecard?"
863
01:00:03,160 --> 01:00:05,600
"Do you know Prinzregentenstrasse 61?"
864
01:00:05,680 --> 01:00:08,960
"It's the secret office of Jan Marsalek."
865
01:00:09,800 --> 01:00:12,960
Even colleagues closest
to Marsalek didn't know
866
01:00:13,040 --> 01:00:16,240
that there was this second office
in the Prinzregentenstrasse.
867
01:00:17,000 --> 01:00:21,840
He would meet
with a very illustrious circle of people,
868
01:00:21,920 --> 01:00:25,680
do business, and host wild parties.
869
01:00:27,560 --> 01:00:31,480
It's Marsalek's boy gang, I'd say.
870
01:00:31,560 --> 01:00:33,040
We always find Martin W.,
871
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:36,360
who had been
in the Austrian secret service.
872
01:00:36,440 --> 01:00:41,320
El-Obeidi,
a former Libyan intelligence officer.
873
01:00:41,840 --> 01:00:48,760
Stani, a Russian who was supposedly
in Munich visiting his sick mother,
874
01:00:48,840 --> 01:00:55,040
but we think he was probably an FSB man,
a Russian secret-service agent.
875
01:00:56,040 --> 01:01:02,720
So suddenly
we had three former intelligence agents
876
01:01:02,800 --> 01:01:07,400
who were in and around
the Prinzregentenstrasse.
877
01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:11,640
And the thing is the Prinzregentenstrasse
is not just anywhere in Munich.
878
01:01:11,720 --> 01:01:14,920
It is directly opposite
the Russian consulate.
879
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:19,400
There is obviously
a secret-service connection.
880
01:01:20,520 --> 01:01:22,080
That electrified me.
881
01:01:23,560 --> 01:01:28,600
Why might Marsalek be so interesting
to intelligence agencies?
882
01:01:31,160 --> 01:01:32,960
Wirecard is a company
883
01:01:33,040 --> 01:01:35,880
through which there are billions
of transactions every year.
884
01:01:36,520 --> 01:01:40,120
And these payments are gold mines
for the secret services
885
01:01:40,200 --> 01:01:43,600
because they show who could be compromised
886
01:01:43,680 --> 01:01:47,880
because their creditcard information
could show porn usage,
887
01:01:47,960 --> 01:01:49,920
brothel visits, or whatever else.
888
01:01:52,320 --> 01:01:54,080
To have a source like Marsalek
889
01:01:54,160 --> 01:01:56,640
who is always
on the move around the world,
890
01:01:56,720 --> 01:01:58,560
that makes a lot of sense.
891
01:02:19,560 --> 01:02:21,560
When the news came through
892
01:02:21,640 --> 01:02:23,760
that Paul had been suspended,
893
01:02:23,840 --> 01:02:25,920
Paul pulled me aside and basically said,
894
01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:28,640
"Both Braun and Marsalek are Austrian."
895
01:02:28,720 --> 01:02:32,320
"Ask around.
See what you can find in Vienna."
896
01:02:34,560 --> 01:02:36,960
Someone recommended this politician
897
01:02:37,040 --> 01:02:40,440
that was looking
at all kinds of political-corruption stuff
898
01:02:40,520 --> 01:02:41,720
going on in Austria.
899
01:02:42,360 --> 01:02:43,720
Stephanie Krisper.
900
01:02:46,240 --> 01:02:50,040
Vienna is sadly mostly
an inviting terrain
901
01:02:50,120 --> 01:02:52,200
for intelligence officers,
902
01:02:52,280 --> 01:02:57,000
for dubious characters,
spies, economic spies.
903
01:03:00,480 --> 01:03:03,000
We met on a boat in the Danube Canal.
904
01:03:03,080 --> 01:03:05,880
I just sort of said,
"Do you know Jan Marsalek?"
905
01:03:07,520 --> 01:03:09,880
She sat back a bit and pondered.
906
01:03:11,320 --> 01:03:13,560
She knew someone that knows Jan,
907
01:03:14,280 --> 01:03:16,080
but she had to be very careful
908
01:03:16,160 --> 01:03:19,880
because he was fearful
of who Jan was involved with.
909
01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:25,800
And so we arranged
to meet him at Café Pruckel.
910
01:03:28,320 --> 01:03:31,960
Stephanie walked in
and introduced me to this friend of hers.
911
01:03:32,720 --> 01:03:36,080
What followed were probably
the most remarkable 20 minutes
912
01:03:36,160 --> 01:03:39,520
in my short 14 years in journalism.
913
01:03:43,480 --> 01:03:46,800
My name is Killian Kleinschmidt.
I'm a German National.
914
01:03:46,880 --> 01:03:52,200
I've been working with the United Nations
on issues of migration and refugees.
915
01:03:52,920 --> 01:03:54,680
I mean, that's something I know.
916
01:03:54,760 --> 01:03:57,200
Um, how to deal
with large numbers of people on the move.
917
01:03:59,560 --> 01:04:03,040
2016, Austria is building up
to the elections.
918
01:04:03,120 --> 01:04:05,280
Um, I received an email
919
01:04:05,360 --> 01:04:07,480
asking me whether I would be interested
920
01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:10,240
to work on a project with Jan Marsalek.
921
01:04:11,360 --> 01:04:13,240
I didn't know who that was.
922
01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:15,680
I did not even know Wirecard.
923
01:04:17,720 --> 01:04:21,080
A few days later,
we met in the famous restaurant,
924
01:04:21,160 --> 01:04:22,440
the Kafer in Munich.
925
01:04:23,600 --> 01:04:25,720
Extremely eloquent, smiling,
926
01:04:25,800 --> 01:04:29,280
the Austrian smart-ass,
very smooth talker.
927
01:04:29,360 --> 01:04:33,520
He stressed that he was very interested
to do a project in Libya.
928
01:04:35,760 --> 01:04:38,680
Crossing the Sahara
in search of a better life,
929
01:04:38,760 --> 01:04:41,040
these migrants are bound for Europe.
930
01:04:42,160 --> 01:04:44,640
And this is where their long ride begins,
931
01:04:44,720 --> 01:04:47,280
several days' drive
from the Libyan border.
932
01:04:51,640 --> 01:04:55,920
He stressed this knowledge of Libya,
where he said he had been several times,
933
01:04:56,000 --> 01:04:57,600
but that his real interest
934
01:04:57,680 --> 01:05:01,440
was really to contribute
to the stabilization of Libya.
935
01:05:03,280 --> 01:05:05,640
He presented himself as doing good work.
936
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:10,960
So we agreed that he would put in
200,000 euros to finance my team,
937
01:05:11,040 --> 01:05:13,480
working with refugee camps in Libya.
938
01:05:15,720 --> 01:05:17,080
It was fantastic. We liked it.
939
01:05:19,360 --> 01:05:22,000
The relationship with Marsalek
was managed by two persons.
940
01:05:23,080 --> 01:05:27,120
Wolfgang Gattringer, who used to work
in the Austrian Ministry of Interior,
941
01:05:27,720 --> 01:05:32,280
and Brigadier Gustenau
from the Ministry of Defense of Austria.
942
01:05:33,360 --> 01:05:36,040
Then popped up Colonel Andrey Chuprygin,
943
01:05:36,120 --> 01:05:39,040
the former secret-service officer
from Russia.
944
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:43,760
He is presented not only as the guy
who works with Jan,
945
01:05:43,840 --> 01:05:46,360
but also the guy
who coordinates Russian interests
946
01:05:46,440 --> 01:05:48,560
in the Middle East and North Africa.
947
01:05:49,760 --> 01:05:51,880
There should have been alarm bells.
948
01:05:54,200 --> 01:05:57,800
In mid-February, we meet Marsalek
in the Prinzregentenstrasse,
949
01:05:57,880 --> 01:06:01,120
just opposite
the Russian General Consulate in Munich.
950
01:06:02,840 --> 01:06:05,880
It's an empty place. It's an old building.
951
01:06:08,560 --> 01:06:09,920
Nice pieces of art.
952
01:06:21,080 --> 01:06:26,520
There is Marsalek talking to Gattringer
and Gustenau and he said,
953
01:06:26,600 --> 01:06:30,800
"I want to train and equip
a border-guard force
954
01:06:30,880 --> 01:06:34,240
of 15, maybe 20,000 men in Libya."
955
01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:40,200
Basically preventing people in distress
from crossing the border.
956
01:06:41,520 --> 01:06:43,280
This is all very bad.
957
01:06:45,360 --> 01:06:48,280
Border security in Libya was a topic that,
958
01:06:48,360 --> 01:06:53,440
for a COO of a company like Wirecard,
wasn't normal in the slightest.
959
01:06:54,560 --> 01:06:58,240
As time went on, I asked myself,
"What does he want in Libya?"
960
01:06:58,320 --> 01:07:01,560
"And why does he seem
to be getting support
961
01:07:01,640 --> 01:07:04,040
from within the Austrian government
962
01:07:04,120 --> 01:07:07,560
for a project
that doesn't have humanitarian aims?"
963
01:07:08,800 --> 01:07:11,240
For me, then that all clicked.
964
01:07:11,320 --> 01:07:15,800
Migration is the theme which makes you win
or lose elections in Europe.
965
01:07:16,400 --> 01:07:19,840
If you ignore negative trends
966
01:07:19,920 --> 01:07:23,160
or if you let immigration go unchecked,
967
01:07:23,240 --> 01:07:25,680
things will go downhill very quickly.
968
01:07:25,760 --> 01:07:29,240
Jan Marsalek was acting as the in-between
969
01:07:29,320 --> 01:07:31,920
for the Russians
and for the right-wing populist parties.
970
01:07:34,800 --> 01:07:37,480
It is logical that if Russia
971
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:39,960
wants to destabilize Europe,
972
01:07:41,040 --> 01:07:45,840
they would try to create anxiety
over supposed waves of refugees
973
01:07:45,920 --> 01:07:49,720
to create a narrative
that heats the debate again.
974
01:07:50,920 --> 01:07:53,720
Marsalek has very good contacts in Russia.
975
01:07:55,280 --> 01:07:59,120
That's why it's plausible
that Jan Marsalek could have been trying
976
01:07:59,200 --> 01:08:01,400
to set something up for the Russians.
977
01:08:06,600 --> 01:08:09,240
My mind was going
at a million miles an hour.
978
01:08:09,320 --> 01:08:10,920
It was clearly bonkers.
979
01:08:11,000 --> 01:08:15,600
The COO of a German company
is not supposed to be involved
980
01:08:15,680 --> 01:08:18,520
in encouraging
disruptive right-wing parties
981
01:08:18,600 --> 01:08:23,560
to capitalize on migration problems,
or recruiting militiamen.
982
01:08:25,120 --> 01:08:27,240
The idea would be crazy
983
01:08:27,320 --> 01:08:30,680
were it not for the fact
that I just felt it rang true.
984
01:08:51,400 --> 01:08:56,200
So Sam starts finding
about all these insane Russian links.
985
01:09:04,200 --> 01:09:08,120
Now, we have to be, like,
state-security-level paranoid.
986
01:09:09,120 --> 01:09:11,200
We're not even putting anything
in digital.
987
01:09:11,280 --> 01:09:14,440
It all has to be handwritten,
and don't talk on the phone.
988
01:09:16,440 --> 01:09:20,160
Paul heard about 28 private detectives
989
01:09:20,240 --> 01:09:22,600
who were wandering around London,
following people.
990
01:09:23,400 --> 01:09:24,520
I went after
991
01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:27,840
the private investigators'
spying operation.
992
01:09:27,920 --> 01:09:33,120
That led us to discovering
that the person bankrolling this operation
993
01:09:33,200 --> 01:09:38,880
was a former Head of Foreign Intelligence
for the Libyan transitionary government.
994
01:09:39,880 --> 01:09:41,520
Rami el-Obeidi.
995
01:09:43,480 --> 01:09:50,440
We did know that Marsalek had interests
in Libya by that point.
996
01:09:53,200 --> 01:09:57,480
Whoever hears the words,
"Libyan spy chief," and thinks,
997
01:09:57,560 --> 01:09:59,720
"Oh, right. Yeah. That's totally fine"?
998
01:10:01,920 --> 01:10:06,240
And so I'm sort of leaving the house
looking for cameras,
999
01:10:06,760 --> 01:10:09,920
leave the office at different times,
catch different trains.
1000
01:10:12,480 --> 01:10:13,600
I'd be on the Tube,
1001
01:10:15,200 --> 01:10:18,760
you'd reach your stop and then you wait
until just before the doors close.
1002
01:10:18,840 --> 01:10:21,160
Then I'd jump out and sort of like,
1003
01:10:21,240 --> 01:10:24,160
"Did anyone else get off with me as well?"
1004
01:10:38,760 --> 01:10:42,520
That was the moment
when I felt nervous about my family.
1005
01:10:44,000 --> 01:10:47,920
This is Freddy McCrum, age three days.
1006
01:10:49,440 --> 01:10:50,720
That's what you worry about.
1007
01:10:50,800 --> 01:10:53,120
Because you'd do anything
to protect your children.
1008
01:10:53,720 --> 01:10:57,920
And the idea that you would put them
in danger for some story…
1009
01:10:59,000 --> 01:11:00,840
I mean, who wants to do that?
1010
01:11:03,120 --> 01:11:03,960
Um…
1011
01:11:05,880 --> 01:11:08,360
It's criminal to wiretap journalists.
1012
01:11:08,440 --> 01:11:11,240
It's criminal
to hack their email accounts.
1013
01:11:11,920 --> 01:11:18,440
The worst part was that this intimidation
was quite successful.
1014
01:11:19,280 --> 01:11:23,520
The Financial Times had launched
an internal inquiry into Dan McCrum,
1015
01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:26,760
and Wirecard made the most of this time,
1016
01:11:26,840 --> 01:11:29,360
and its market price kept rising.
1017
01:11:29,440 --> 01:11:36,040
They even got the German Chancellor
to promote the company in China.
1018
01:11:36,120 --> 01:11:39,520
All this happened in those months
when the Financial Times
1019
01:11:39,600 --> 01:11:42,080
didn't write anything critical
of Wirecard.
1020
01:11:43,760 --> 01:11:45,680
I went through a torrid time.
1021
01:11:45,760 --> 01:11:47,240
I wanted to get back at them.
1022
01:11:48,200 --> 01:11:49,360
I was livid.
1023
01:11:50,600 --> 01:11:54,240
Soon as the investigation was over,
when we get a clean bill of health,
1024
01:11:54,320 --> 01:11:56,000
I called in Paul and Dan.
1025
01:11:56,520 --> 01:11:59,520
I said, "The next story,
I want you to draw blood."
1026
01:12:05,840 --> 01:12:10,400
We had to find a way
to make it absolutely clear to everybody
1027
01:12:10,480 --> 01:12:12,120
that Wirecard was a fake.
1028
01:12:14,800 --> 01:12:17,400
We were angry,
and there was no hanging back.
1029
01:12:21,560 --> 01:12:23,000
It was the whole enchilada.
1030
01:12:23,880 --> 01:12:26,440
Wirecard is a fake,
its business isn't real,
1031
01:12:26,520 --> 01:12:28,520
and Markus Braun is lying to you.
1032
01:12:29,040 --> 01:12:31,000
And here are the documents that prove it.
1033
01:12:36,880 --> 01:12:39,920
This is how it is doing the fakery.
1034
01:12:40,440 --> 01:12:44,000
Here are the partners that don't exist.
Here are the customers who don't exist.
1035
01:12:46,400 --> 01:12:50,240
Here is everything you need
to switch on the blue lights,
1036
01:12:50,320 --> 01:12:53,080
go down to Wirecard HQ,
and arrest everyone.
1037
01:12:55,040 --> 01:12:56,960
The Financial Times suggest
1038
01:12:57,040 --> 01:12:59,520
that you've routed billions of euros
in payments
1039
01:12:59,600 --> 01:13:01,320
-to 34 names…
-Mm-hmm.
1040
01:13:01,400 --> 01:13:05,600
…through a partner company
in Dubai at Al Alam Solutions.
1041
01:13:05,680 --> 01:13:07,400
According to the FT,
1042
01:13:07,480 --> 01:13:11,080
more than half of the clients
have never heard of Al Alam.
1043
01:13:11,160 --> 01:13:13,120
Let me give you
a clear statement here.
1044
01:13:13,200 --> 01:13:15,800
This information is not authentic,
1045
01:13:15,880 --> 01:13:18,160
how it was presented by the FT.
1046
01:13:18,240 --> 01:13:21,120
We can completely reject
these allegations.
1047
01:13:24,800 --> 01:13:27,480
Dan McCrum's reporting
at the Financial Times,
1048
01:13:27,560 --> 01:13:29,840
of course, made us uneasy.
1049
01:13:29,920 --> 01:13:34,360
However, I just didn't have any visibility
of any transactions
1050
01:13:34,440 --> 01:13:36,880
in the Middle East or the Philippines.
1051
01:13:36,960 --> 01:13:40,560
It didn't really make sense to me
that they couldn't exist.
1052
01:13:41,960 --> 01:13:45,120
It was painful
because this is something you believed in.
1053
01:13:49,760 --> 01:13:53,480
We believed
that we had put a hole in Wirecard
1054
01:13:53,560 --> 01:13:55,320
that would bring the business down,
1055
01:13:55,400 --> 01:13:57,560
but it didn't come crashing down.
1056
01:13:58,320 --> 01:14:03,480
But this latest evidence
from the FT was difficult to ignore.
1057
01:14:03,560 --> 01:14:08,440
Now Wirecard has categorically rejected
the allegations of impropriety.
1058
01:14:08,520 --> 01:14:10,160
But on October 21st,
1059
01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:13,480
Wirecard appointed KPMG
to conduct a special audit,
1060
01:14:13,560 --> 01:14:19,240
just to confirm that they have not engaged
in any improper accounting practices.
1061
01:14:20,920 --> 01:14:24,200
Dr. Markus Braun, you've decided
1062
01:14:24,280 --> 01:14:27,000
to carry out an external audit
1063
01:14:27,080 --> 01:14:32,200
due to the allegations
that the FT have made.
1064
01:14:32,280 --> 01:14:34,760
The question is, "Why only now?"
1065
01:14:35,640 --> 01:14:37,200
Well, we reacted very quickly.
1066
01:14:37,280 --> 01:14:41,120
The newspaper article was published
only over a week ago.
1067
01:14:42,560 --> 01:14:46,400
At first, Braun didn't want this inquiry.
1068
01:14:46,480 --> 01:14:50,680
We reject these allegations 100%.
1069
01:14:51,280 --> 01:14:55,480
People at Wirecard must have known
that this is going to be troublesome.
1070
01:14:55,560 --> 01:14:58,160
When will the auditors present
their report?
1071
01:14:58,800 --> 01:15:03,320
I don't want to jump the gun,
but we think within a few months.
1072
01:15:03,400 --> 01:15:07,680
We believe
we will have results very quickly.
1073
01:15:09,640 --> 01:15:11,680
Holy shit. The story's working.
1074
01:15:12,200 --> 01:15:15,720
Finally, you know, we had an impact.
They haven't been able to brush it off.
1075
01:15:15,800 --> 01:15:18,040
There's been enough pressure
from their investors
1076
01:15:18,120 --> 01:15:21,000
that they've had
to appoint KPMG.
1077
01:15:21,080 --> 01:15:23,480
It felt like the stakes were high
at that point.
1078
01:15:32,640 --> 01:15:34,480
My name is Joachim Giehl.
1079
01:15:35,280 --> 01:15:37,760
I am Markus Braun's neighbor.
1080
01:15:40,360 --> 01:15:42,640
I always had the impression
1081
01:15:42,720 --> 01:15:45,320
that this man is under
a massive amount of pressure.
1082
01:15:48,520 --> 01:15:51,560
He greeted nobody as his neighbor.
1083
01:15:51,640 --> 01:15:53,800
He always just got in his car.
1084
01:15:53,880 --> 01:15:55,840
No hello, no nothing.
1085
01:16:00,760 --> 01:16:05,960
There was one day, around 8:30 p.m.,
1086
01:16:06,040 --> 01:16:09,000
I parked my car in the garage.
1087
01:16:09,600 --> 01:16:15,200
It was dark, and I saw Markus Braun
at the entrance to our building.
1088
01:16:17,040 --> 01:16:21,920
I saw him in the lamplight,
and he looked extremely tense.
1089
01:16:23,920 --> 01:16:28,960
He was surrounded by some men
whom I didn't recognize.
1090
01:16:31,760 --> 01:16:33,240
They seemed out of place.
1091
01:16:35,200 --> 01:16:37,600
They didn't look like businesspeople.
1092
01:16:37,680 --> 01:16:43,000
They looked like people
who work as security, bodyguards,
1093
01:16:43,080 --> 01:16:45,280
a group of thugs…
1094
01:16:45,360 --> 01:16:47,120
…or people like that.
1095
01:16:48,680 --> 01:16:52,240
They didn't look
like they were there to protect him.
1096
01:16:52,320 --> 01:16:56,560
Rather, I thought they were there…
1097
01:16:58,200 --> 01:16:59,360
…to do a job.
1098
01:17:06,800 --> 01:17:09,920
Dr. Markus Braun
and Jan Marsalek's relationship
1099
01:17:10,000 --> 01:17:11,800
definitely deteriorated.
1100
01:17:13,760 --> 01:17:16,120
In December 2019,
1101
01:17:16,200 --> 01:17:19,080
we had a Christmas party for our team,
1102
01:17:19,960 --> 01:17:23,200
and Jan Marsalek arrived
somewhat unexpectedly.
1103
01:17:24,520 --> 01:17:27,400
And then he said… in a smiling fashion,
1104
01:17:27,480 --> 01:17:31,880
"Martin, if you stole 100,000
from the company,
1105
01:17:31,960 --> 01:17:34,120
I would not have respect for you."
1106
01:17:34,200 --> 01:17:36,240
"If you're gonna steal it
from the company,
1107
01:17:36,320 --> 01:17:37,960
you have to steal millions,
1108
01:17:38,040 --> 01:17:39,600
hundreds of millions."
1109
01:17:43,480 --> 01:17:45,560
While this was happening,
1110
01:17:45,640 --> 01:17:48,560
Braun comes up with this fantastic idea.
1111
01:17:50,280 --> 01:17:51,640
His biggest yet.
1112
01:17:52,600 --> 01:17:55,640
The plan was to take over Deutsche Bank,
1113
01:17:55,720 --> 01:17:57,520
Germany's biggest bank.
1114
01:17:59,240 --> 01:18:01,640
It was called "Project Panther,"
1115
01:18:01,720 --> 01:18:04,360
a plan for a hostile takeover.
1116
01:18:04,960 --> 01:18:09,440
A large consulting company
put a document together
1117
01:18:09,520 --> 01:18:12,920
which showed how it could make sense
1118
01:18:13,000 --> 01:18:15,480
to merge an old bank
with a new tech company.
1119
01:18:17,080 --> 01:18:20,760
The "Wirebank,"
or whatever it would have been called.
1120
01:18:22,320 --> 01:18:24,760
The idea was
1121
01:18:24,840 --> 01:18:27,760
if you merged these two companies,
1122
01:18:27,840 --> 01:18:31,920
with the Deutsche Bank balance
being so much bigger than Wirecard's,
1123
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:36,440
that then maybe the fraud at Wirecard
would somehow get swept under the rug.
1124
01:18:38,120 --> 01:18:40,600
If you've got a bank like Deutsche Bank,
1125
01:18:40,680 --> 01:18:44,040
you can hide a lot of bad numbers
inside a bank that big.
1126
01:18:45,400 --> 01:18:47,080
It's sort of genius, really.
1127
01:18:47,760 --> 01:18:49,880
It's a bit like instead of having
a getaway car,
1128
01:18:49,960 --> 01:18:52,000
it's just gone into the bank
and taken over.
1129
01:18:53,880 --> 01:18:55,280
And if they'd done that, you know,
1130
01:18:55,360 --> 01:18:58,080
Markus Braun would have been
the genius financier,
1131
01:18:58,160 --> 01:19:01,640
who was now running one of the
world's largest financial institutions.
1132
01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:07,920
It was essentially
Braun's last roll of the dice.
1133
01:19:11,240 --> 01:19:14,320
Wirecard's existing auditors, EY,
1134
01:19:14,400 --> 01:19:19,480
were taking extra steps
to check that 1.9 billion of cash,
1135
01:19:19,560 --> 01:19:23,560
which Wirecard claimed, actually existed.
1136
01:19:24,280 --> 01:19:26,120
Wirecard essentially said
1137
01:19:26,200 --> 01:19:31,720
that 1.9 billion euros was sitting
in two Philippine banks.
1138
01:19:32,320 --> 01:19:35,400
On this occasion,
the auditors wanted real proof
1139
01:19:35,480 --> 01:19:39,800
that Wirecard had access
to the money it claimed,
1140
01:19:39,880 --> 01:19:43,800
which, of course, Wirecard couldn't do
because the money didn't exist.
1141
01:19:44,400 --> 01:19:49,280
So everybody wanted to know,
would EY find out the truth?
1142
01:20:07,040 --> 01:20:09,560
That night, I couldn't sleep…
1143
01:20:10,720 --> 01:20:12,640
because I wanted to be prepared.
1144
01:20:14,920 --> 01:20:18,360
Whatever I could get my hands on,
as far as shares of Wirecard,
1145
01:20:18,440 --> 01:20:22,560
I got it because, you know, in my gut,
I knew it was going to happen that day.
1146
01:20:24,520 --> 01:20:28,440
We got close to 100 million
at the, you know, peak of Wirecard
1147
01:20:29,840 --> 01:20:31,520
until I ran out of shares to short.
1148
01:20:39,600 --> 01:20:40,760
That morning,
1149
01:20:40,840 --> 01:20:44,320
I'm up at six o'clock
waiting for something to happen.
1150
01:20:45,360 --> 01:20:47,280
Suddenly this announcement pops up.
1151
01:20:47,960 --> 01:20:52,960
Auditors can
no longer locate €1.9 billion
1152
01:20:53,040 --> 01:20:55,680
that are said to be
in escrow accounts in Asia.
1153
01:20:55,760 --> 01:20:57,920
The two banks
in the Philippines
1154
01:20:58,000 --> 01:21:00,440
where the €1.9 billion was supposed to be
1155
01:21:00,520 --> 01:21:02,920
said today
that they had no business relations
1156
01:21:03,000 --> 01:21:04,680
with the payments processor.
1157
01:21:04,760 --> 01:21:06,240
The documents were faked.
1158
01:21:07,600 --> 01:21:12,400
As soon as I saw that,
I just knew it's completely game over.
1159
01:21:16,560 --> 01:21:19,800
The share price crashes.
The short sellers can all see it.
1160
01:21:19,880 --> 01:21:22,720
They start selling
every single Wirecard share
1161
01:21:22,800 --> 01:21:25,520
they can get their hands on
and finally make a fortune from it.
1162
01:21:25,600 --> 01:21:28,800
How do you simply miss
a couple of billion dollars?
1163
01:21:29,400 --> 01:21:34,160
The share price plunged by 70%.
1164
01:21:34,240 --> 01:21:35,720
Fucking hell. We did it!
1165
01:21:35,800 --> 01:21:37,360
You know…
1166
01:21:37,440 --> 01:21:38,600
…I mean, we did it.
1167
01:21:38,680 --> 01:21:40,680
We finally got those bastards.
1168
01:21:47,520 --> 01:21:49,560
When you make money,
obviously it's great.
1169
01:21:49,640 --> 01:21:52,560
You know, we're happy for our investors
and it's a huge win.
1170
01:21:53,240 --> 01:21:56,160
Our satisfaction,
the excitement is in the hunt,
1171
01:21:56,240 --> 01:21:58,400
but Wirecard was our biggest winner,
1172
01:21:58,480 --> 01:22:03,280
and I suspect it'll be our biggest winner,
um, for a long while.
1173
01:22:05,360 --> 01:22:07,520
Ladies and gentlemen,
1174
01:22:07,600 --> 01:22:10,720
on behalf
of the management board of Wirecard,
1175
01:22:10,800 --> 01:22:12,920
I would like to give
the following explanation.
1176
01:22:13,000 --> 01:22:15,960
The press conference that night
was like The Muppet Show.
1177
01:22:17,400 --> 01:22:19,480
Braun reads from the teleprompter.
1178
01:22:20,920 --> 01:22:23,040
The death sentence
has already been handed out,
1179
01:22:23,120 --> 01:22:27,680
and he's still making it seem
as if he's going to announce
1180
01:22:27,760 --> 01:22:30,760
an amazing quarterly report next month.
1181
01:22:31,360 --> 01:22:36,120
Right now,
it cannot be ruled out that Wirecard
1182
01:22:36,200 --> 01:22:39,520
has become the damaged party
1183
01:22:39,600 --> 01:22:43,040
in a fraud case
of considerable proportions.
1184
01:22:44,640 --> 01:22:45,960
Within a week,
1185
01:22:46,040 --> 01:22:49,120
Wirecard has been placed
into administration. It's gone bust.
1186
01:22:49,200 --> 01:22:51,400
Former CEO of Wirecard
has been arrested
1187
01:22:51,480 --> 01:22:53,760
on suspicion of falsifying accounts.
1188
01:22:53,840 --> 01:22:56,000
And Markus Braun has been arrested.
1189
01:22:57,000 --> 01:22:59,760
But Jan Marsalek just disappears.
1190
01:23:01,680 --> 01:23:05,800
Where is the COO
of the insolvent payment processor,
1191
01:23:05,880 --> 01:23:08,760
Wirecard, the Austrian, Jan Marsalek?
1192
01:23:10,840 --> 01:23:14,080
Wirecard's former
Chief Operating Officer, Jan Marsalek
1193
01:23:14,160 --> 01:23:16,360
may have returned to the Philippines.
1194
01:23:17,040 --> 01:23:19,480
He arrived on June 23.
1195
01:23:19,560 --> 01:23:20,960
That was two days ago
1196
01:23:21,040 --> 01:23:24,080
and left yesterday morning
bound for China.
1197
01:23:26,200 --> 01:23:28,760
An agent always has an escape route.
1198
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:35,960
We knew that Marsalek was in the office
until that Friday afternoon.
1199
01:23:36,600 --> 01:23:38,920
He supposedly said
1200
01:23:39,000 --> 01:23:41,960
he had to go to the Philippines
to clear the whole thing up.
1201
01:23:44,400 --> 01:23:48,360
He went for dinner
with Martin W. that evening.
1202
01:23:50,360 --> 01:23:53,000
Martin W., who he knew
from the Prinzregentenstrasse
1203
01:23:53,080 --> 01:23:56,120
and who used to be
in the Austrian secret service
1204
01:23:56,200 --> 01:24:00,320
together with an Austrian,
right-wing politician
1205
01:24:00,400 --> 01:24:02,240
booked Marsalek a flight.
1206
01:24:03,720 --> 01:24:07,360
Marsalek paid close to €8,000 in cash…
1207
01:24:08,920 --> 01:24:10,760
and then his trail disappeared.
1208
01:24:13,840 --> 01:24:15,400
He didn't go to the Philippines.
1209
01:24:15,480 --> 01:24:16,480
It doesn't make sense.
1210
01:24:16,560 --> 01:24:21,280
He couldn't have entered the country
because of quarantine regulations.
1211
01:24:22,480 --> 01:24:25,160
There are databases
where you can check flight data.
1212
01:24:25,840 --> 01:24:31,000
Since 2015,
he flew at least 60 times to Russia.
1213
01:24:31,520 --> 01:24:33,920
And there was one flight
1214
01:24:34,000 --> 01:24:38,800
from a small airport near Vienna to Minsk.
1215
01:24:41,040 --> 01:24:42,480
It's not far from Moscow.
1216
01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:48,320
The border to Russia is not controlled,
and that's where the trail is lost.
1217
01:24:49,520 --> 01:24:52,120
After that, it's just rumors.
1218
01:24:56,040 --> 01:24:57,960
We don't know for certain if Marsalek
1219
01:24:58,040 --> 01:25:01,400
was actually a secret-service informant
or not.
1220
01:25:03,480 --> 01:25:05,960
Jan Marsalek was
very well-connected
1221
01:25:06,040 --> 01:25:08,680
in the secret service parallel world,
1222
01:25:08,760 --> 01:25:12,120
and that's why I think he won't be
that easy to find.
1223
01:25:15,760 --> 01:25:18,360
We know
that he's online occasionally
1224
01:25:18,440 --> 01:25:22,080
via an old Telegram account.
1225
01:25:24,800 --> 01:25:26,280
I can check again.
1226
01:25:29,080 --> 01:25:33,880
He's been online every few months.
1227
01:25:35,480 --> 01:25:40,880
The last time was on May 27, 2021.
1228
01:25:48,520 --> 01:25:50,760
The German parliament has started
1229
01:25:50,840 --> 01:25:52,960
a political inquiry into Wirecard,
1230
01:25:53,040 --> 01:25:55,960
one of the biggest scandals
of the German republic.
1231
01:25:56,040 --> 01:26:00,760
A financial disaster for those
who invested their money in Wirecard.
1232
01:26:02,360 --> 01:26:07,440
It was
the first DAX-listed company to go bust.
1233
01:26:20,280 --> 01:26:23,520
I think that Wirecard's inner circle
1234
01:26:23,600 --> 01:26:27,440
who knew what was really going on
was very small.
1235
01:26:28,600 --> 01:26:29,720
Certainly Marsalek.
1236
01:26:30,600 --> 01:26:34,720
The fascinating question is,
"What did Braun know about all this?"
1237
01:26:43,400 --> 01:26:46,040
He wasn't emotional.
He was very tense.
1238
01:26:47,320 --> 01:26:50,120
And then he gave
a short opening statement.
1239
01:26:51,000 --> 01:26:55,120
"All I can say… is we were all deceived."
1240
01:26:56,160 --> 01:26:57,360
"I'm a victim."
1241
01:26:58,720 --> 01:27:02,000
And then his lawyer said
he won't answer any further questions.
1242
01:27:02,680 --> 01:27:07,080
He really sat there for three hours
and didn't answer.
1243
01:27:10,080 --> 01:27:12,800
Reliving the whole experience now,
1244
01:27:12,880 --> 01:27:15,840
I feel naive
in not having seen certain things.
1245
01:27:16,880 --> 01:27:18,560
I do believe, personally,
1246
01:27:18,640 --> 01:27:23,360
that there's a possibility he did not know
what Jan Marsalek was doing,
1247
01:27:24,480 --> 01:27:27,400
but I think
it was his responsibility to know.
1248
01:27:29,920 --> 01:27:34,160
I think so far,
we only know the tip of the iceberg.
1249
01:27:34,240 --> 01:27:39,400
Unless Jan Marsalek turns up somewhere
and breaks his silence,
1250
01:27:39,480 --> 01:27:41,880
only then will we get the full story.
1251
01:27:44,720 --> 01:27:47,240
If Jan's out there,
I'd love to talk to him.
1252
01:27:47,320 --> 01:27:50,040
I mean, I've spent years trying
to get inside his head.
1253
01:27:52,160 --> 01:27:55,040
Who was it
who was committing the fraud within?
1254
01:27:55,120 --> 01:27:58,200
You know,
what did he and Markus Braun talk about?
1255
01:27:58,720 --> 01:28:01,520
Was it a relief
when it came crashing down?
1256
01:28:04,160 --> 01:28:05,840
That's kind of interesting, right?