Head of German audit regulator Apas has been dismissed with immediate effect after disclosing that he’d been trading with Wirecard stocks when the company was being audited earlier in 2020.
Ralf Bose had told German lawmakers on December 10 that he’d been buying and selling Wirecard shares back in April and May this year.
He has now been let go “to ensure the integrity of the Apas until the facts have been finally clarified,” Apas said in a statement seen by Financial News.
Bose’s transactions are now subject of an investigation by the German regulator.
His dismissal comes as German regulators face massive scrutiny over their failure to prevent the alleged billion dollar fraud that saw Wirecard implode this summer.
The German payment processing company filed for insolvency after $2.1bn of its balance sheet were revealed to be missing, if they had ever existed in the first place.
This triggered a chain-reaction that saw the company, which had been hailed as one of the FinTech behemoths of FinTech for years, implode as evidence of an alleged global multi-billion dollar scam came into light.
The months gone by has seen several members of the company’s top brass having had accusations levied at them from both the press and from the authorities. Several members of Wirecard’s previous leadership or are being sought after by the authorities. The arrested executives, including former CEO Markus Braun, deny any wrongdoing.
Since then, Wirecard has been chopped and sold to differnet companies around the world. Spanish bank Santander bought the core business in November for €100m.
Other bits and bobs have been picked up by Syncapay, Paynetics, Railsbank and IDnow.
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