Wirecard Chief Executive Markus Braun has resigned with immediate effect, as uncertainty over an alleged accounting scandal at the firm began to escalate today.
His resignation follows a fall in the firm’s share price as the market continued to react to the ongoing controversy. James H. Freis, Jr has been confirmed as interim CEO, after his appointment as a member of the management board yesterday.
The most recent fallout from the story has seen two of Germany’s most significant investors threaten legal action over the case, which is creating widespread instability around the future of the firm.
Thursday saw the issue elevated as €1.9bn in Elrow accounts at two Asian banks was no longer there. It leaves Wirecard in a deeply worrying predicament as the once growing company has been forced to look to fill the substantial void left by the alleged fraud.
Consequently Wirecard was not in a position to publish its results to stakeholders this week, causing even more uncertainty and opening up the possibility for lenders to withdraw, should the results fail to be published.
The debacle adds to an already a tough trading period for the German payments firm. As recently as last year it called on the guidance of KPMG to carry out an independent audit following a Financial Times (FT) investigation which uncovered ‘suspect accounting practices’.
