TCI files criminal complaint against Wirecard executives in Munich
TCI Fund Management has today filed a criminal complaint against Wirecard executives in Munich, escalating the activist campaign against the payments group.
The filing of a complaint with the Munich prosecutors piles further pressure on Wirecard’s chief executive Markus Braun, who TCI has called on to resign.
TCI fund manager Sir Christopher Hohn last month called on the payment group’s supervisory board to remove Braun after an audit by KPMG was unable to verify its revenue. Hohn said the audit “raises questions as to how investors, lenders and regulators can be confident that Wirecard’s current and historic accounting is accurate.”
In a statement today TCI that it believes that “the KPMG report
published by Wirecard on 28 April 2020 as well as public reporting, including that in the Financial
Times and WirtschaftsWoche, reveal anomalies that may have criminal relevance.”
The German payments group hired KPMG to audit its finances in October last year, after the Financial Times published internal documents that appeared to indicate Wirecard units in Dubai had tried to inflate its reported sales and profits.
Wirtschaftswoche subsequently raised questions about accounting issues, including figures reported at Hermes, a Wirecard business in India.
However, KPMG later said it was unable to obtain all the information it had requested from the firm, such as bank statements. Hohn subseqently called on Wirecard’s supervisory board to remove Braun. If not they should remove management from all involvement in the audit until it has been completed, otherwise it will be committing a “breach of duty of care”.
Wirecard was contacted for comment.
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