German regulator probes employees’ transactions linked to Wirecard

Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has found that its employees conducted almost 500 private market transactions linked to scandal-hit payment service provider Wirecard.

BaFin is investigating 497 private stock market transactions conducted by 85 employees, in which the share price of Wirecard played a role, according to information by the Finance Ministry.

The transactions, which occurred between 2017 and 2020, were being probed under the suspicion that BaFin employees benefited from possible confidential information on Wirecard for private financial gain – for instance buying or selling Wirecard stock.

Wirecard, once hailed as a rising star and listed on Germany’s DAX index of leading shares, imploded after admitting that 1.9 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) in assets were likely non-existent.

German prosecutors are investigating former executives at the firm on suspicion of fraud which allegedly led to banks and investors being cheated out of more than 3 billion euros.

German authorities and financial regulators, including BaFin, have come under scrutiny regarding how much and how soon they knew about the suspected fraud.