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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed her lobby Wirecard In China in 2019, he said there was “no reason to assume” that there were serious irregularities in the fraudulent payment company.
He was talking to Merkel Bundestag consultation German politicians and financial regulators did not investigate how they detected one of the worst cases of fraud in Germany’s post-war history. Merkel’s testimony forms the culmination of a six-month probe.
In the opening statement he said that his government had regularly sided with the economic interests of foreign German companies and that Wirecard was no exception. But he denied that Wirecard had “special treatment” during his visit to China. “In fact [it] he discussed his logic in China, ”he said.
“Despite all the press reports, there was then no reason to assume that there were any serious irregularities in the Wirecard,” he said. He stressed that the company’s press coverage did not follow “negative and not positive”, but said there were a lot of people at the time who thought Wirecard was “really a great tech company”.
Opposition lawmakers said in 2019, given the number of critical reports, the chancellor should move away from the Wirecard. Merkel “did not cover herself with glory,” said Danyal Bayaz Greens. “He promoted the interests of a criminal company in China.”
During Merkel’s trip to China, Wirecard was trying to enter China by buying Chinese payment company AllScore Financial. The Chinese regulator, the People’s Bank of China, had to be approved to seal the deal. Merkel raised the issue with her Chinese interlocutors during the trip.
Wirecard’s push to enter the Chinese market “adapted” its strategy to try to open up China’s financial services sector in Berlin.
Wirecard reported last June that it was missing 1.9 million euros in its accounts and soon went bankrupt. Munich prosecutors have accused former chief executive Markus Braun of directing a criminal racket that committed “billions of fraud”. Braun, who was in police custody last summer, has declined to comment.
Merkel said the Wirecard affair in Germany is “a blow to hundreds and thousands of honest businessmen.”
He was speaking to lawmakers after Finance Minister Olaf Scholz appeared before the interrogation. In particular, he has examined the role of financial regulation supervisor BaFin, who has been criticized for not judging Wirecard and for following FT reporters and short sellers who found irregularities in the company’s accounting practices.
In an interview with Merkel, MPs focused their attention on a meeting with Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, now president of the consulting firm Spitzberg Partners, on September 3, 2019, just days before the trip to China. Guttenberg, who was advising Wirecard at the time, brought in the purchase of AllScore Financial and asked the chancellor for help.
Merkel said she could not remember mentioning Wirecard at the meeting. According to him, he left the matter in the hands of experts from the chancellor’s economy department, addressed to his chief adviser, Lars-Hendrik Röller.
Merkel defended the decision to meet with Guttenberg, saying she had “of course” accepted requests for personal meetings with former government ministers.
But when questioned, he expressed frustration in the interview, saying “I’m not particularly grateful” when former colleagues use personal conversations with him to “make certain requests.”
“We need strict and clear rules to prevent situations where chancellors will be hired for lobbying interests in the future,” said Bayaz, a green deputy.
Röller was also examined in an email, which lawmakers said showed that his wife had tried to establish a business relationship for Wirecard in China. Merkel has said she has no reason to question Röller’s “loyalty and integrity”.
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