Transcripts For DW Made In Germany 20240712

Welcome and starting with a major scandal thats rocked germanys financial world the bankruptcy of Payment Company wire caught what a story it could be straight out of a Martin Scorsese movie looking at the dock a side of humanity why a card was a major tax listed company until an investigation by the Financial Times uncovered a fraudulent behavior in the end of the german Fin Tech Company Success Story collapsed like a house of cards. A member of the Investigations Team of the Financial Times was the 1st to raise the alert about what it costs accounts this is a bit of a Strange Company in the numbers that its putting out dont quite seem to add up what a card was a highly promising tax listed Fin Tech Company specialized in Electronic Payment Services Online Purchases also involve fees to the transaction provider such as why a card its a growing market that benefits from growing Technical Innovations so surely the sums should add up. The reporters revelations cools the high flying way a card shares to tumble germanys financial regulator then accused him of market manipulation. When you suddenly find yourself facing a criminal investigation in june that was there were some moments where it was quite stressful but dan mccrum was proven right as prosecutors launched an investigation into why a concert action its former c. E. O. Was arrested and taken into custody while his deputy has disappeared amid rumors of assistance from russian intelligence why a card looks to be one of germanys biggest fraud scandals sounds faeces by far the biggest story of my career. Well the wia card collapse has sent quaver across the financial world im struck fear into the hearts of financial regulators and auditor after all year after year auditors had given y. A cot a clean bill of health the industrys biggest players are Accounting Firms deloitte Price Waterhouse cooper ernst and young or even why nowadays and k p m g the wild card scandal is especially painful for you why it had been wild cards regular order to since 2009 but failed to identify fraudulent money palatial the Balance Sheets until this year. Its a scandal of unprecedented proportions. As wire card shares slumped with billions of euros wiped off its market value many questions arose chief among them if a company that became a favorite among investors posted fraudulent accounts for years on end why did nobody notice isnt that what auditors are for in this case the wine formerly ernst and young 100. 00 a year now its impossible to understand how there could be a comprehensive audit saying everything is ok except nothing was ok. The why has to explain that gap but i cant imagine how they possibly could i mean clearly a lot of things went wrong and so i mean its you know. Was it incompetence negligence a conflict of interest or perhaps lucrative consulting contracts. This is you know and this is one piece of the puzzle we have auditors in this case the y. Who also acted as consultants the auditors job is to check that everythings above board. But if the auditor 1st advises the client how its done then thats not going to work. Its like letting the fox guard the henhouse so yeah. In any case the auditors failed to notice that there was a hole in the companys accounts at 1900000000 euros. But Financial Services providers are also subject to government supervision in this case and germanys financial regulator bothin if you are the wire card bank was subject to checks by bof a in but the Parent Company wasnt because it was classified as a tech company like siemens despite being involved in Financial Services and monetary transactions. Never had the access that would have allowed it to take proper supervise reaction. Did do what it always does check that the firm is complying with Capital Market regulations but that wasnt a problem it was fraud there was money missing maybe Money Laundering we dont know yet. He says generally what we do know is that wire cards accounts were fakes regulation of this major dacs listed company did not work resulting in the loss of a lot of money and trust. Me ive always found Financial Consultancy suspect in this confirms why. Its crazy that this could happen here despite all the authorities who regulate these things. Theyre saying about off id say fan and should cover the losses incurred. Compensation for stock market losses due to fraud one of several questions to be resolved in the courts where card is potentially germanys biggest post workout inc scandal and one that has investors deeply worried because it was down to the control system and if it didnt work with wire card and there were blind spots everywhere you have to ask whether this could happen somewhere else to. Kind of you know you have a problem thats bad for trust bad for shareholder culture which is in any case fragile in germany is the scene you see how complex it all was like something out of james bond it would be exciting if it werent so sad. Sad indeed the icon scandal is not fictional it really happened and why what prompts entrepreneurs and manages to drop any sense of decency and feel their own pockets no matter what impact the criminal behavior has on the company its and police and the chip this is the story of one persons plunge into White Collar Crime joe is in court he defrauded the toy manufacturer he works for to the tune of 1000000 euros. Its not that he really needed the money he actually earns well there as head of the purchasing department. But joes still deeply unhappy with his company his last promotion was 10 years ago he wants more. So he comes up with a plan and joe as a logical self interested personality. Weighs the risk of being caught against the potential gains. He takes advantage of his privileged position sells toys without informing his company and pockets the revenues then he covers up his crime by forging paperwork. To ease his conscience joe tells himself hell pay it back someday for months his plan works he feels in control of the situation but joe miscalculated and is eventually caught. Criminals like joe cost the German Economy an estimated 100000000000. 00 euros every year one in 4 of those who commit fraud are top level managers. The official figures are actually falling with fewer White Collar Crimes committed and less cash involved but many White Collar Crimes go unreported because companies are worried about image. They adopt compliance regulations asking employees to voluntarily follow the rules thats one way to help hinder fraud and corruption. Maybe next time joe will follow them to 5 years from now when he gets out of jail. Well poor joe why it caught is just the latest in a long list of high profile scandals in the Business World in recent years remember the gate the mission cheating scandal was brought to light in september 2015 and the industry is still picking up the pieces but fraud on a large scale does not only happen on this side of the atlantic and its certainly not a new phenomenon lets refresh your memory. Financial fraud can go unnoticed for years no matter how many cases are uncovered most will never come tonight. The list is long. The list is long from tax fraud to corruption to steal cartels. The types of fraud are endless. And it can be very very expensive. Take for example texas a company with a Technical Innovation its horizontal drills was supposed to allow underground cables to be late without having to tear up roads. Only low tech spots not fabricated more the 90 percent of the supposed revenue that left investors and creditors out of pocket to the tune of more than 2000000000. 00 euros. A year later enron shocks the markets big u. S. Energy giant had over 20000. 00 employees and cricket Board Members Balance Sheets were falsified the enron collapse destroyed the Company Pensions of many workers it led to a film about one of the most spectacular fraud cases in u. S. History and white to more than 60000000000. 00 from stock exchanges. There was also a large scale accounting fraud at the u. S. Telecom company and world com the former c. E. O. Was sentenced to 25 years in prison investors lost around 150000000000. 00. Instances of cooking the books a common like it italian dairy giant parmalat the cutbacks following insolvency hit workers heart. Attacks parmar world com. All classic cases. The common factor is that the main driver of the scams has a powerful position in the company and is also a major shareholder. The reason. When those 2 combine you can succeed in avoiding certain control mechanisms those mechanisms were probably also structurally underdeveloped but the fraudster can subvert them. He became infamous Bernie Madoff he was given 150 years in jail for his ponzi scheme more than 4000 investors well why they lost their money. The question for the ethics experts why did they do it im going to talk perceived a perceived sense that they can. Get away with it bernie made off to he wouldnt have thought it would collapse at some point he did hope to be able to transition from the ponzi scheme to a normal system. And the last aspect is rationalizing it our ability to do something immoral and to tell ourselves that what were doing isnt so bad that its legitimate. Maybe that was the case. When the company cheated on missions tests something some of its competitors were also doing the lawsuits have a damages. So why ecologists just the latest big fraud case and it set me by being the last. So have we learned nothing from previous scandals what happened for example to the brokenness who helped to bring about the Global Financial crisis are they aware of what theyve done or have they lost all sense of reality chasing after the next big deal growing to understand should know he worked in londons Financial Sector and wrote books about the madness of a world possessed and obsessed with money making our london correspondent big mosque caught up with the insider more than a decade after his revelations. Well the years he was one of them then he turned against his former colleagues and published a book on greed in the city of london. Gerund anderson the film a utilities analyst with some of europes biggest banks in this place was populated by gamblers who took big risks who were thinking short term and who didnt really care about the consequences of their actions. This is one of the many places i see come back in the day we have 34 hour lunches and maybe theres a bunch of strip joints of about 500 yards that way cocaine dealer was just over there. It was all very good back in the good old days. But how would you describe your forma so the caring and that what here in this environment. Was pretty cocky pretty arrogant i was a gambler by nature risk taking over confident so i was basically a pretty perfect personality for the stock broker and in fact my attitude. As i was then helps explain why the financial crisis happened. The people who invented the Financial Products that exploded that sent the Global Economy into a tailspin i knew they were creating a Financial Planner that was doomed to fail because Interest Rates dont stay low for a copy process dont go up forever but they didnt because in the 10 years while they fry these products they made millions in bonuses but. How was the atmosphere in the city why did you sense that something was going to happen you know ive been kind of calling a financial crisis pretty much every 2 or 3 years since i joined the city. In 1906 this is it this is the big guys and and we all felt that and that was actually one of the problems because when you feel like the whole house of cold is going to fall down the incentive then is to make as much money by whatever means possible. That you and you are thinking only of that year before you know the bank wont even exist 2 years time here with a critical of myself but it was actually a little bit late now i had guilt pangs all the time about the industry i was working in from year to when i finally left after 12 years every year i said this in my last year im just going to do it for one year and every year that bonus would come i think were also going to do in my life is going to be even bigger next year ill stay so i got trapped so did you sell your soul to the devil and i did sell my soul to the devil but i go a very good price. Yeah i did i sell my soul to the devil i would do anything to get that bonus safe in the knowledge that if my actions then later proved to create profits that were not real it didnt matter it was too late i had the money good boy its mine if somebody was solved because of your actions. I would say the. Worse off because of the actions of this place of which i was a member i mean weve been living in austerity here all real wages. So havent even changed for about 10 years in the u. K. And so on that basis the casino i was working in and a paid up member will help to make sure most people in this countrys laws probably slightly less well off than we should be. Now then we shouldnt always put the blame on Office Making mistakes based on false assumptions its human brace yourself who are all prone to misinterpreting economic realities each and every one of us can fall victim to illusions sometimes we even fall for them knowingly look. At our economic illusions. Imagine we spend our whole life tied up in a cave in front of us is a big wall on which we see figures passing by but they are mere shadows of things moving in front of the fire. We believe its reality but its an illusion platos cave the allegory by the ancient greek philosopher is still valid today politicians entrepreneur and consumers can fall victim to illusions misunderstanding or misinterpreting reality in the 950. 00 s. The soviet union aimed to overtake the us economy among other things its plan called for communist corn that was twice as large as capitalist corn but the plan fell apart due to crop failures and unwieldy if iraq received the victory of socialism proved to be an illusion. Illusions also took root in the west for example youre going to shrimps vision in 1998 was to turn the maker of mercedes cars into a Global Automobile company so he merged benz with u. S. Car maker chrysler celebrating it as a match made in heaven. But the 2 companys culture and philosophy rick completely incompatible the project failed ultimately at a cost of around 40000000000. 00 euros the vision to be an expensive illusion. And consumers believe their diesels were environmentally friendly intil it turned out that emissions test said been manipulated and the vehicles polluted bunch more than was claimed. And illusion driven by fraud. And how about the rest of us honestly we love illusions at least at 1st nothing pulls us in like a well made illusion. Advertising consumption Financial Markets a large part of the economy is based on illusions. And today we sit in our caves or at least in front of our screens voluntarily but before our illusions shatter wed better leave the cave and seek out reality. Now then lets take a breather and look at big dreams from a different perspective not every vision is doomed or tainted by criminal behavior and to bring about useful change is sometimes tough to think big like. A young woman from india she has no need to work for a living but the air of a 1000000000 dollar Business Empire decided to found a bank providing micro credits. Its not. You dont choose where youre born. And then your village is a pop star in india and shes just been on the fast told she doesnt need to make money from music because shes been british since but. For most of her fans having a life like a 9 years is nothing more than a dream. I think best in india being gab between the version the boy is massive and while growing up there always sort of been me from within and i want to do something to bridge that gap. The bill a familys private assets are worth an estimated 9000000000 euro writers have father kumar and some industrial empire button on your didnt join the Family Business she set up her own company such tantra microphone that grants micro loans to people who would normally be tonight alone she had no Prior Experience in banking. So initially no wonder we see as the bank doesnt think mysteriously no one was willing to lend to me no one was willing to come on board in terms of. All rather duffus thing to get over was getting people on my side and making that data make them understand im serious about this and im not just im a kid but im a kid with a vision. Indians who a born into poverty usually state. The cost system often determines people social status and chances of climbing the ladder and so i just decided for them. Its almost impossible for farmers in the countryside to get a bank loan most of them dont have the necessary financial means all securities. But some true microphone helps people like these with whats called a micro credit this farmer has taken out a micro credit of around 100 euros to buy another cow and increase his production the family needs a 2nd line to pay for a hospital visit for the father and son of around 400. 00 euros c. In multiple that life was very difficult before we were struggling a lot. I dont know hes dreamt of having a cow but i couldnt make it happen. Thanks to the micro credit i was able to buy one the company has already paid out around 30000000. 00 euros in my current credits mostly to women the money goes towards all kinds of things like machines animals a new house a car and insurance around 99 percent of the borrowers keep up with every payments because of an unused special system. And so i created some ghost. Ladies in a group and if one doesnt then everyone all the other ladies have a chip in anything. And that pressure it add a little bit of pressure. On. Her private bank has already helped more than half a 1000000 women across india. Demand is very high for these micro loans. Even though the Interest Rates are comparable to those of a conventional bank. The process is simple customers apply for a loan online using an app. Every customer gets that are in digital account. And then your bella maintains that shes not a charity. I think we are a catalyst for their growth and thats what i would like to see because they repay us with principal and interest so when are helping them in any way were just trying to provide them with the broad out bad i would support them to grow. This is a chance for people to break free from poverty a chance that they might not have got from anyone else. Now that report was made before the coronavirus pandemic hit of course i did shows that the Business World doesnt only consist of fraudsters and greedy venturous theres also some good to there lets not forget that thats all for made this week for me in the team thanks for watching. It. Has been working in middle east fields for many years he has no Legal Protection no rights and barely enough to live on. In june a new law came into effect in the us for him and about 350000 other Migrant Workers it meant hope but their dreams of legal status seem to have been dashed some on your. 30 minutes on d w. As long as. Im not just going to go to day nothing would change you know the banks you know your mind and so was the language of a bank money. Speaking the truth global news that matters g. W. Made for mines. Has a virus spread. Why do we panic and when well all miss them. Just 3 of the topics covered in the weekly radio show is called spectrum if you would like any information on the coronavirus or any other science topic you should really check out our podcast you can get it wherever you get your podcast you can also find us at d. F. W. Dot com look forward slash science. Beethoven is for me. Is for. Beethoven is for help. And beethoven is for. Beethoven is for every law until been 2020 years 50th anniversary here on. The time and place captured in pictures. Images of goes on. A flu studios are kind of slimes in bygone eras. And leads to those living today. They are guarding guns as past in a box. The legacy in black and white. Collected memories starts august 14th on d. W. This is the deputy news live from burlesque the u. S. Moves into a crucial phase in the race for the white House Democratic president ial hopeful joe biden holding his 1st campaign of bad with newly named running mate. The senator from california is the 1st woman of color to run on a major parties to also coming to