Dusseldorf It is probably the harshest reaction to date to the now published report by special investigator Martin Wambach on the work of the auditors (WP) from EY in the scandal surrounding the financial services provider Wirecard: EY suggests as WP, you will no longer be able to exonerate the AR (supervisory board, d. Ed.) & Possibly not be able to re-elect “, tweeted Marc Tüngler, managing director of the German Association for Securities Ownership (DSW). “Now nobody can talk their way out of it, they don’t know anything concrete,” writes Tüngler on this Friday.
On Thursday, the Handelsblatt published the previously secret report by the expert appointed by the Bundestag committee of inquiry. On 168 pages, Wambach had attested the EY auditors numerous deficiencies in their work. His analysis suggests: If EY had consistently audited according to the standards of the Institute of Auditors (IDW), the business conduct at Wirecard and the fraud might have been discovered much earlier. EY, on the other hand, denies any wrongdoing to this day.
While those who deal with the Wirecard case almost unanimously attribute far-reaching importance to the publication – some even refer to the publication as a “boob” – opinions differ widely. Rejection and incomprehension comes from auditors, the approval of shareholder protectors, small investors and their lawyers, but also from politics.
“Findings on how such a scandal can be prevented”
For example, Jens Zimmermann, former chairman of the Wirecard committee of inquiry, comments: “The report provides information on how such a scandal can be prevented in the future. This is exactly what the public is interested in, ”says Zimmermann.
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It is not about “pounding anybody into the pan”. But the report shows “relentlessly that the Wirecard scandal could have been cleared up earlier with a little common sense. EY’s counter-argument that company secrets would be disclosed in the event of a publication is not convincing, ”said Zimmermann.
Support comes from the left-wing politician Fabio De Masi, who has since left the Bundestag and was one of the most committed enlighteners on the Wirecard Committee: “I have always said clearly that the Wambach report should be made public. Because the task of a committee of inquiry is not to pass a legal judgment on EY, but to make a public inspection of the crime scene so that the population can form a judgment, ”says De Masi.
“I very much hope that the Bundestag will convince the Federal Court of Justice regardless of the publication by the Handelsblatt and that it will be able to publish the document itself in the investigation report without being redacted,” said De Masi.
Hope for better opportunities for investors
In a first attempt to break the secrecy of the Wambach report, the lawyers of the committee of inquiry failed in the summer. On August 6, the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled that the document remains secret. The reason: The committee has since disbanded, the motion is therefore inadmissible. This does not end the legal dispute, the case is currently before the BGH again.
The Berlin lawyer Wolfgang Schirp, who was one of the first to file a lawsuit against EY last year, associates a clear hope with the publication: “I think that the document, which is now publicly available, will give investors a boost. It makes it imperative to make judges aware of the specific circumstances in the work of EY that made this scandal possible in the first place. “
Lisa Paus, financial policy spokeswoman for the Greens, even thinks: It’s a good day for the many aggrieved investors. Thanks to the now public report, the likelihood of success for their lawsuits increases. “I find it appalling what the Wambach report brought to light in the EY case. The report shows that the EY auditors also had serious doubts much earlier than previously known, but did not draw the necessary conclusions from them until the end. Why needs further clarification.
So far, investors who took EY to court in civil courts have had bad cards. For the most part, they already failed because the courts saw no causality between the attestations and the investors’ decision to buy.
More: A report on EY’s work at Wirecard was stamped secret by the Bundestag. The Handelsblatt discloses the explosive document.