Culture | Wire fraud

How one journalist exposed the Wirecard scandal

Dan McCrum recounts his battle to expose the truth about the tech firm

VIENNA, AUSTRIA - AUGUST 27: A passerby walks by the office door sign of bankrupt and scandal-ridden German payments processing company Wirecard on August 27, 2020 in Vienna, Austria. Wirecard AG, once listed in the DAX index and heralded as a tech startup marvel, has completely collapsed following revelations that its accounting was fraudulent. Former board member Jan Marsalek is on the run and some media report he has fled to Russia. The debacle has also tarnished accounting firm Ernst and Young as well as German financial overseer Bafin, both of whom failed to detect Wirecard's massive financial irregularities. (Photo by Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)

Money Men. By Dan McCrum. Bantam Press; 352 pages; £20

This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Wire fraud”

Reinventing globalisation

From the June 18th 2022 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

More from Culture

Theatre audience standing in formal attire, applauding.

Ovation inflation has spread from Broadway to London’s West End

Why do dud plays get standing ovations?

Christ and the Loving Soul, Illustration from Simon Critchley On Misticism

Are mystics kooks or valuable disrupters?

A realist’s refreshing take on mysticism


Little Red Riding Hood with the wolf, disguised as her grandmother. Illustration by Arthur Rackham (1867-1939), c1909.

Sex and Snow White: how Grimm should children’s books be?

The German authors suggest very, but today trends run the opposite way


Jimmy Lai’s trial is a headline-worthy example of injustice

A new biography aims to keep the public’s attention on the pro-democracy tycoon

Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo attack, satire is under siege

Public support is waning for the right to offend