EY records complaints about the issuance of a confidential Wirecard report

EY has complained about the publication of a German newspaper report on the parliamentary report on its work for the infamous Wirecard company.

A criminal complaint was filed Monday in Munich judges, the Big Four told the Financial Times. Critics have confirmed receiving the complaint but declined to comment further.

The most serious report was written by Martin Wambach, a colleague at the accounting firm Rödl & Partner, on behalf of the parliamentary committee on Wirecard fraud.

It lit up serious errors mu EY’s auditing function, found that the company failed to detect any signs of fraud, did not make full use of expert advice and, on the most important questions, relied on word of assurance from officials. The report also cited more than 150 internal EY documents submitted to the committee but were deemed to have been selected in accordance with German law.

The case came from lawmakers who asked the Federal Court of Justice to allow the publication of a report that has not changed. was removed in August. An appeal against the decision is still pending.

On November 11, the German daily Handelsblatt published its entire 168-page document. It stated that the report, labeled “Deutscher Bundestag – Geheim”, was funded by taxpayers and that it was to attract public attention. Under German law, “Geheim” is the second-highest secret. Those who issued confidential documents and were not allowed to do so could be sentenced to up to three years in prison.

In a statement Monday, the Big Four company said: “In the opinion of EY, in presenting the report. [to Handelsblatt] is a violation of the law, a violation of the supreme court order and the legitimacy of human justice. ”

The company claimed that the rights of the employees named in the report, as well as those whose names were not withheld by Handelsblatt, had been violated. In addition, the publication of the report revealed the secrets of EY businesses, it said.

After the report, which came in two parts, was finalized by Wambach in April and May this year, several newspapers including the Financial Times published articles on his subject and mentioned other aspects. Someone close to EY told FT that Handelsblatt’s publication of the entire document “was very different”.

EY said its criminal complaints were directed at “unidentified” people who issued the document and did not look at Handelsblatt reporters.

Kay Gottschalk, a former chair of the Wirecard Inquiry Committee, which resigned after publishing its report this summer, told FT he was “surprised” by EY’s complaints.

“I can not imagine that the members of the inquiry committee released the documents. We often found that journalists had confidential documents even before they were presented to the committee,” said the MP for Rightwing Alternative for Germany Party. Gottschalk also emphasized the protection of the media’s resources.

“Handelsblatt represents the publication of the Wambach report,” the editor of the paper Sebastian Matthes told FT, adding that it was the responsibility of journalists to cover political and economic power, expose weaknesses and create transparency. “This is what we did and published the Wambach report,” said Matthes, adding that the millions of retailers who lost money on Wirecard had a “right to know how this damage could happen”.