Wirecard investor lawsuit against EY filed in Munich

Wirecard AG

22/12/2023 13:43

FRANKFURT, Dec 22 (Reuters) - A new investor lawsuit is
claiming more than 700 million euros  ($771.40 million) in
damages from accounting firm EY for its role in auditing the
books of Wirecard before its collapse in 2020, a shareholder
group said.
    The 80,000-page suit represents 13,000 individual and
institutional investors and was filed in a Munich court on
Friday, the DSW shareholder protection group said.
    It is one of several lawsuits EY is facing in the matter. 
    EY did not immediately comment. EY has previously rebuffed
the claims against it for damages in relation to Wirecard.
    Wirecard's downfall shook the German business establishment,
putting politicians who had backed it under intense scrutiny,
along with regulators that took years to investigate allegations
against the payments company.
    Wirecard ended by filing for insolvency in June 2020, owing
creditors almost $4 billion, after disclosing a 1.9 billion euro
hole in its accounts that EY said was the result of a
sophisticated global fraud.
    Klaus Nieding, a lawyer representing the shareholders in the
lawsuit, said that EY should have seen "relatively easily that
the alleged 1.9 billion did not exist in Wirecard's
corresponding accounts, because" another auditor later "found
this out very quickly".
    


($1 = 0.9074 euros)

 (Reporting by Tom Sims. Editing by Jane Merriman)
 ((Tom.Sims@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 645;))