Money Men: A Hot Startup, a Billion Dollar Fraud, a Fight for the Truth by Dan McCrum

Author:Dan McCrum
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9781473593879
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2022-06-15T23:00:00+00:00

20

Manipulated

30 January 2019 – London

Wirecard share price €167, market capitalization €21bn

THE CENTRE OF THE Financial Times newsroom was an oval of desks surrounding the news editor, a maestro conducting all around him. Hung above that hub were several large TV screens displaying the various rolling news channels, sound off except for natural disasters and impromptu Donald Trump news conferences. Radiating outwards were the various desks required to put out a website; pictures, graphics, stats, IT, video, breaking news; a small army of sub-editors who published stories, stitched the paper together and were the last line of defence against garbled and inaccurate copy. In January 2019 preparations for the move to a new building by St Paul’s Cathedral were under way, and the floor had an air of decay about it. The carpet was dirty and worn, mouse sightings were common and some of the ceiling tiles were battered and askew. Most surfaces were covered with old newspapers, mementoes, coffee cups and piles of notebooks.

Amid it all, I was about to publish the biggest story of my life. The investigations team had half a dozen seats in a corner by the entrance to the U-bend, a position which made it a dangerous spot for a ‘drive-by’: the sudden appearance of the editor, Lionel Barber, with a passing word of encouragement or instruction. ‘Anything yet?’ he asked, emerging from the corridor of power and pausing just long enough to catch me anxiously killing time on Twitter.

‘Nothing so far.’ Clocks showed five time zones; an hour to go, six since I’d spoken to Edo Kurniawan in Singapore and fired questions at Wirecard HQ. I half expected to see Nigel Hanson bearing down on us with a summons from Schillings to injunct the story. My stomach was churning. I had a crumpled tie in my desk drawer, just in case. ‘You hit publish, then you almost throw up,’ Paul Murphy said of these moments.

We planned to publish while the stock market was open and trading, as a big move in the share price would amplify the attention by forcing the news agencies to explain what was going on. I’d picked red trousers that morning, a small bit of bravado for the battle ahead. It was lunchtime, but I couldn’t eat. Murphy’s strategy was to head over the river for an early crab sandwich and glass of wine at Sweetings. He’d scarcely been gone half an hour when he swept back in, red-faced. ‘We’ve got a fucking leak.’

Throwing his coat down, he quickly explained what had happened. Perched on a bar stool on Sweetings, he’d taken a call from Gary Kilbey, the nightclub owner. He’d heard that a Wirecard story was coming. ‘Everybody’s talking about it, it’s all round the market. Word is there’s a story coming at 1 p.m., it must be your lawyers or something.’

Murphy told him the rumour was rubbish, abandoned his sandwich and rushed back to the office. How could we have a leak? I’d gone to ground for three months. The story wasn’t even in the FT system yet.

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