BaFin is the general word used for the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority....the audit group of the German government. They are the people who are supposed to go and look at the books and bank records of companies....to keep them 'straight' and honest.
They've been around for about 18 years and based out of Frankfurt. Prior to 2002....there were three agencies that existed, with varying missions and purposes. This 'fusion' was supposed to create an all-in-one organization....that maintained public trust.
So this past two weeks, Wirecard (the company) has been in the news. When an audit was recently completed....Wirecard had 1.9-billion Euro on the books, which physically didn't exist.
One aspect of this 1.9-billion Euro which still amazes me....they were actually paying taxes on fake profits, which seems a bit illogical (the more you ponder upon this).
The logical question came up....shouldn't BaFin have noticed problems a year, or even five years ago?
ARD (public German TV, Channel One) covered this question. It's interesting what they found.
In 2019, BaFin hired a private company (legal by all aspects) to conduct the Wirecard audit. Number of people involved in this....ONE. Yes, one single guy.
An investigation by the government will be done, and probably released in a couple of weeks. It's anyone's guess how they will view the mess, and the results of a marginal audit in 2019.
No comments:
Post a Comment