As investigators go deeper into investigations of the the collapse of Wirecard through what appears to be massive fraud, Germany’s financial regulator BaFin has recommended prosecutors explore the possibility of insider trading at the company. Just over a week before the company’s share price collapsed in mid-June, someone posted information on an online forum about the coming trouble Wirecard was in with its auditor. EY would eventually announce that it was unable to sign off on Wirecard’s accounts due to its inability to find nearly €2 billion in cash. It’s the type of information that’s of enormous value to short sellers, but is illegal to disclose in the case of public companies. Within a week of the announcement, Wirecard had filed for insolvency. Prosecutors have been unwilling to comment on the report since it appeared in the economic publication Handelsblatt.
