Wirecard’s rise and fall is a case study in the carnage possible when a firm’s accounting goes awry but national regulators and big investors are so seduced by the company’s narrative that they cannot, or will not, see it. It is also a reminder of how markets stand to benefit from short-sellers—who try to make…
Tag: fraud
The economic crisis will expose a decade’s worth of corporate fraud | The Economist
Booms help fraudsters paper over cracks in their accounts, from fictitious investment returns to exaggerated sales. Slowdowns rip the covering off. As Baruch Lev, an accounting professor at New York University, puts it, “In good times everyone looks good, and the market punishes you harshly for not keeping up.” Many big book-cooking scandals of the…
Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigns amid scandal over emissions-rigging “defeat device.”
Martin Winterkorn, embattled chief executive of Volkswagen and public face of the company’s disastrous “defeat device,” said Wednesday that he is stepping down. His decision follows the unveiling of an emissions-rigging scandal in which Volkswagen systematically cheated on U.S. air pollution tests. While the full toll of the damage is yet to be taken, the…
