To misplace one billion dollars may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.

Just to get everyone up to speed.

Wirecard shares plunged more than 60% on Thursday as the German payments giant postponed its annual results once again and said auditors could not confirm the existence of 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in cash on its balance sheet.

The Munich-headquartered company said in a statement Thursday morning that auditor EY couldn’t find the cash balances — which represent roughly a quarter of its balance sheet. There were indications that “spurious balance confirmations” had been made by a trustee to “deceive the auditor and create a wrong perception of the existence of such cash balances,” it added.

“The Wirecard management board is working intensively together with the auditor towards a clarification of the situation,” the firm said. It added that failure to provide its 2019 financial statements by Friday could result in loans of around 2 billion euros being “terminated.”

...

The Financial Times has published a series of reports on its investigation into Wirecard’s accounting practices. According to those reports, which began back in January 2019, Wirecard’s Singapore office tried to inflate revenue through forged and backdated contracts. Another story in October claimed that Wirecard’s staff appeared to conspire to inflate sales and profits at subsidiaries in Dubai and Dublin and mislead EY. 

Is the a SoftBank connection? Do you even have to ask? (From April of last year)

The investment by the world’s biggest private technology company is a vote of confidence in Wirecard’s business as it defends itself against allegations of fraud, and will allow the Munich-based firm to expand its operations in Asia.

Shares in Wirecard jumped 10 percent to the top of Germany’s blue-chip index by 1240 GMT.

Wirecard, founded in 1999, ousted Commerzbank from Germany’s leading share index last year as it benefited from an accelerating global trend towards digital payments driven by e-commerce.

The two companies also unveiled a strategic partnership in which Softbank will help Wirecard expand in Japan and South Korea, and provide opportunities to work with other companies in its portfolio in areas such as data analytics, AI and digital financial services.

Other Softbank investments in its Vision Fund range from ride-sharing giants including Uber, DiDi, Grab and Ola to new financial and business services such as WeWork. Analysts said the partnership could provide further growth opportunities for Wirecard.

“Wirecard has a strong track record in pioneering innovation in digital payments and has been at the forefront in reshaping modern consumer behaviors,” a spokesman for Softbank said.

“We are excited to partner with the company and see huge potential to deploy this technology at scale across new markets and sectors within SoftBank’s global technology portfolio.”