Wirecard: Accounting Forensics & Bank-Data Gaps — How €1.9B Vanished on Paper

Wirecard looked unstoppable: rising revenue, global expansion, and a lucrative third-party acquiring (TPA) arm that supposedly parked cash in overseas escrow. Forensic accounting asked a simple question: Do the bank statements agree? In this 3-minute breakdown, we show how the case unraveled when auditors and a special review demanded direct bank confirmations, raw merchant/PSP files, and original contracts—and found gaps.
We walk through the core tests:
• Three-way reconciliation — merchant transactions → acquirer settlements → actual bank inflows.
• Cut-off & metadata — back-dated contracts, odd timestamps, and attachment provenance that didn’t fit the timeline.
• Cash vs. earnings — profits up while operating cash flow lagged; improbable margin stability for thin-fee payments.
• Trustee narrative — balances claimed at Asian banks via “trustees”; banks later stated those accounts did not exist.
With auditors refusing sign-off, Wirecard’s €1.9B hole triggered a rapid leadership exit, arrests, and insolvency. Beyond headlines, the lesson is procedural: screenshots aren’t evidence. For high-risk structures, demand independent confirms (bank letters or SWIFT MT940/942), pull API statements directly, and corroborate with partner data and server logs. If a business is remote, trustee-held, or unusually smooth, raise assurance: SOC reports, site visits, and sample-to-cash walkthroughs.
Bottom line: The ledger’s truth is in cash movements you can verify independently. When numbers and narratives diverge—believe the numbers.

Chapters
00:00 €1.9B that wasn’t there
00:20 TPA model & “escrow” story
00:45 Direct bank confirms vs. PDFs
01:05 Missing raw data & three-way match
01:25 Cut-off & metadata anomalies
01:45 Trustee accounts disputed
02:05 Cash vs. earnings & margin physics
02:25 Audit refusal → collapse
02:45 Lessons & checklist

Third-Party Acquiring (TPA), escrow trustee, direct bank confirmation, SWIFT MT940/942, cut-off testing, metadata forensics, SOC report, three-way reconciliation

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