Clockwise from upper left: Dan McCrum, Paul Murphy, Sam Jones and
Olaf Storbeck
Best international business news reporting in newspapers, news services, magazines or digital
AWARD DATE: 2020
AWARD NAME: The Malcolm Forbes Award 2020
AWARD RECIPIENTS: Dan McCrum, Paul Murphy, Sam Jones and Olaf Storbeck
AWARD RECIPIENT AFFILIATION: Financial Times
AWARD HONORED WORK: “Inside Wirecard”
AWARD SPONSOR: Forbes Magazine
The remarkable multiyear takedown of a European fintech high-flyer, Wirecard, by a Financial Times investigative team culminated in 2020 with stories detailing the rot – not only at the Dax 30 firm, but in the German financial establishment that had sought to protect it. Dan McCrum laid out for readers the campaign by Wirecard and its hired guns to discredit and even prosecute him for unearthing the scandalous accounting, actions which earlier prompted the FT to suspend its efforts while it completed an internal probe. The work resumed with stories on the shady leaders of Wirecard and on the Big Four auditing firm, EY, whose professionals were complicit in the fraud. From this courageous and resourceful journalism have followed arrest warrants, resignations and a gaping insolvency.
Read the winning work:
From payments to armaments: the double life of Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek
Wirecard: the frantic final months of a fraudulent operation
Wirecard and me: Dan McCrum on exposing a criminal enterprise
Whistleblower warned EY of Wirecard fraud four years before collapse
How EY missed the chance to stop Wirecard’s fraud
Citation:
Cam Simpson, Michael Smith and Nacha Cattan
Bloomberg News
“Addicted to Profit”
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