The German financial technology wunderkind Wirecard has seen its share price plunge 60 percent following its repeated failure to publish annual results for 2019. It’s emerged in recent days that the company’s auditors EY refused to sign off on the annual report accounting because it was unable to determine the whereabouts of €1.9bn in cash that was listed on its balance sheet. In a statement, Wirecard worte that “spurious balance confirmations” may have been made by a trustee with in order to “deceive the auditor and create a wrong perception of the existence of such cash balances.” Wirecard’s board claims that it is working with the auditor “intensively” to work out the problem but admitted that by not publishing the 2019 results as it was required to, it could have loans worth €2bn terminated.
