Wirecard AG Shareholder Action against Ernst & Young GmbH
This is a shareholder action for shareholders of Wirecard AG (Wirecard), led by international law firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP.
The action is seeking compensation for institutional shareholders who lost millions of euros in value as a result of perceived failures by Wirecard’s long term auditor, Ernst & Young GmbH (E&Y).
Please note, we are not funding claims on behalf of retail claimants.
Background
German company Wirecard was compelled to initiate insolvency proceedings in Germany on 25 June 2020. The catalyst for this inevitability was that its auditor, Ernst & Young GmbH (E&Y), informed Wirecard on 18 June 2020 that no sufficient audit evidence could be obtained in relation to cash balances in trust accounts that were to be consolidated in the consolidated financial statements in the amount of EUR 1.9bn (approximately a quarter of the consolidated balance sheet total).
Wirecard was then forced to acknowledge that the EUR 1.9bn in cash included in those financial statements probably never existed in the first place. The company withdrew its preliminary results for 2019, the first quarter of 2020 and its profit forecast for 2020.
The consequence of the recent actions of Wirecard is that the share price of Wirecard has dropped by 95%.
E&Y has been the auditor of Wirecard since 2008. It is an independent legal entity and a member firm of the EY global organization. E&Y has 10,400 employees and EUR 2 bn in revenues. E&Y says that it is the auditor of six out of ten of the largest German banks and that is has Germany's largest tax and legal advisory practice.
Cause of Action
The shareholder action will allege that E&Y has breached the duties that it owed to the shareholders of Wirecard under German law by failing to undertake its audit duties professionally.
Current stage of case
Closed for sign up.
The claim has been filed on 30 December 2022 as an opt-in claim.
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