Wirecard lawsuit against EY claims 1.5 billion euros in damages

Wirecard AG

29/12/2023 14:17

FRANKFURT, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Accountancy firm EY is
facing a new lawsuit claiming 1.5 billion euros ($1.66 billion)
in damages over its role in auditing Wirecard's books before the
German payments company collapsed in 2020. 
    The suit was filed by Wirecard's insolvency manager Michael
Jaffe in a court in Stuttgart, a court spokesperson said on
Friday.
    It is one of several lawsuits EY is facing in the matter,
including an investor suit filed last week claiming more than
700 million euros in damages.
    EY declined to comment, as it did on last week's suit. 
    The accounting firm has previously rebuffed claims against
it for damages in relation to Wirecard.
    Wirecard filed 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.
    The firm's downfall shook the German business establishment,
putting politicians who had backed it under intense scrutiny,
along with regulators who took years to investigate allegations
against the payments company that were circulating prior to its
collapse.
    Klaus Nieding, a lawyer representing shareholders in last
week's 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".
   Handelsblatt first reported the value of damages sought in
the Stuttgart case earlier on Friday.
    


($1 = 0.9051 euros)

 (Reporting by Tom Sims and Alexander Huebner
Editing by Miranda Murray and Sharon Singleton)
 ((Tom.Sims@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 645;))