Frankfurt (Germany) (AFP) – A lawsuit by Wirecard investors claiming 750 million euros ($780 million) in compensation over the German payment company’s collapse in a 2020 fraud scandal had its first hearing on Friday. Some 8,500 investors are hoping to rake back some of the money they lost when it was revealed Wirecard had a two-billion-euro hole in its accounts.
The class action lawsuit, which is being heard at Bavaria’s regional supreme court in Munich, is aimed at the company’s top management, its auditor EY, and Wirecard’s insolvency administrator. The scale of the trial means it is exceptionally being held in the arrivals hall at the former Munich-Riem international airport. The large number of claimants could eventually swell even further, according to the court.
Around 19,000 people have lodged claims for compensation not included in the original suit and could join the case, the court said. Central to the proceedings will be the question of whether positive audit reports from EY can be used as evidence.
In its heyday, Wirecard was heralded as a success story for German technology and was admitted into the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s blue-chip DAX index. The firm imploded in June 2020 after it was forced to admit that 1.9 billion euros in cash, meant to be sitting in trustee accounts in Asia, did not actually exist.
Several senior figures from the company are separately facing criminal trial over the scandal, including ex-CEO Markus Braun. In September, a Munich court ordered three former board members, including Braun, to pay damages for “negligently” approving a loan to a business in Asia.
© 2024 AFP
