Wirecard: German Parliament slams Scholz and Merkel
Reuters, 07 June 2021
A committee of lawmakers in the Bundestag has published its inquiry into the Wirecard fraud affair. The damaging report comes months before Germany’s general election.
The public inquiry into the Wirecard scandal published its concluding report on Monday, criticizing Germany’s Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The parliamentary committee consisting of opposition lawmakers ended a monthslong investigation into the scandal with the publication of a 675-page draft report. Continue reading “Article: Wirecard: German Parliament slams Scholz and Merkel”
What would you do if you were confident you could get away with it? Perhaps you’d rob a bank, or have a wild affair. Or maybe you’d subsist on nothing but candy floss for the rest of your life.
The German chancellor has appeared at a parliamentary inquiry to defend her decision to lobby on behalf of the disgraced banking firm Wirecard in China. The scandal is one of Germany’s biggest ever fraud cases.
In February 2019, after a steep drop in Wirecard’s share price, German authorities launched criminal probes into short-sellers and journalists who had accused the company of fraud, and banned investors from betting against the company.
German scandals are not like other scandals. The bouquet of a classic German scandal contains unmistakable notes: a rabbit-hole impenetrability, the implication of an entire guilt-ridden society, and, most importantly, a sense that the controversy says something essential about Germany as a whole. German scandals are collectivized. They are about a belief in German difference, for good or ill. 
Angela Dorothea Merkel (née Kasner; born 17 July 1954) is a German politician who has been Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018.
Stephen Merkel is the Executive Managing Director, General Counsel and Secretary of Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. He joined the firm in 1993. He is also Executive Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary of BGC Partners, Inc. Previously, he was the Director, Senior Vice-President, General Counsel and Secretary of eSpeed. Prior to joining Cantor Fitzgerald, Mr. Merkel was Vice-President and Assistant General Counsel at Goldman Sachs & Co., dedicated to the J. Aron Division. Mr. Merkel graduated with a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from the University of Pennsylvania and received his law degree from the University of Michigan School of Law.