MPS grill Merkel, ministers on collapse of Wirecard firm
BERLIN: German lawmakers probing the collapse of payments firm Wirecard are this week grilling top ministers and even Chancellor Angela Merkel as a parliamentary inquiry into the massive fraud reaches a dramatic climax.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, who has described the Wirecard scandal as “unparalleled” in Germany, will find himself in the hot seat on Thursday, two days ater Economy Minister Peter Altmaier appeared before the parliamentary commitee.
Lawmakers are investigating the political and regulatory failings that allowed the Wirecard cheating to go unnoticed for years, with critics saying early warning signs were ignored.
Once a rising star in the booming fintech sector, Wirecard filed for bankruptcy last year ater admiting 1.9 billion euros was missing from its accounts.
The company’s former CEO Markus Braun and several other top executives were arrested on fraud and money-laundering charges.
The focus on politicians’ roles in the drama comes at an awkward time for Merkel’s ruling conservatives and their Social Democratic (SPD) coalition partners, five months before a general election.
Outgoing chancellor Merkel will be quizzed over her role in the scandal on Friday, ater it emerged she promoted Wirecard on a trip to China in September 2019 when the firm was eyeing a foray into the Chinese market.
Her intervention has raised eyebrows because journalists were already voicing doubts about Wirecard’s books at the time.
Merkel should ask herself whether “promoting Wirecard was really appropriate or whether her office should not have looked into the warning signs earlier,” said Frank Schaeffler, an MP from the pro-business FDP party who is on the commitee.
Also accused of being too slow to react is Merkel’s would-be successor Scholz from the centre-let SPD, whose finance ministry oversees banking regulator Bafin, which has come under fire for its lax oversight of Wirecard.
That, in turn, “raises the question of the political responsibility of Olaf Scholz and his state secretaries,” said Mathias Hauer, a conservative MP on the commitee.