Business

EY failed to check Wirecard bank statements for 3 years

Difficult to believe but…..

Philippine authorities search for Wirecard’s number two in fraud probe

Well, yes, it all rather is a load of scheisse, isn’t it, and it’s got to be hunted for…..

The Government should pay graduates to undertake internships at businesses struggling because of the coronavirus pandemic, leading universities say….

Some wet behind the ears graduate – this is before we consider grievance studies etc – is a cost to a business, not an asset. For the first 6 to 18 months at least.

So, why do you want to add to the costs of a struggling business?

Investors appeared to welcome signs of progress in efforts to investigate Wirecard the shares rose by €2.72, or almost 19 per cent, to €17.16 yesterday.

It isn’t that someone nicked the money. It’s that it never existed. The company has been – well, so is my opinion for all that’s worth – lying all along. The trade, the traffic, the margins and the profits never existed. In order to make it seem like they did there has to be a balancing item – you know, where the hell is this cash? Which is what the €1.9 billion was.

There is therefore no value in the company. Not because the cash has gone but because it was never there.

From the FT. Alerted by Hallowed Be.

Markus Braun’s almost two decades as Wirecard AG’s chief executive officer ended after accusations about the company’s accounting culminated in a shock disclosure that it was was unable to locate 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion).

….

Braun’s exit comes after a catastrophic few days for Wirecard, which suffered a share price collapse after the two Asian banks that were alleged to be holding the missing cash denied any business relationship with the company.

No relationship at all? Blimey

Wirecard claimed on Thursday that auditor Ernst & Young couldn’t confirm the location of the missing cash that was supposed to be held at two Asian banks and reported that “spurious balance confirmations” had been provided.

The confusion deepened on Friday when BDO Unibank Inc., the Philippines’ largest bank by assets, and the Bank of the Philippine Islands, said on Friday that Wirecard isn’t a client.

“It was a rogue employee who falsified documents and forged the signatures of our officers,” BDO Unibank CEO Nestor Tan said in a mobile phone message. “Wirecard is not even a depositor — we have no relationship with them”.

And guess what?

Its 900 million euros of convertible bonds are now indicated at less than 10 cents on the euro.

Softbank bought those…..

This is giggle a minute stuff.

Early last year BaFin took the unprecedented step of temporarily banning short sales of Wirecard shares following reports of suspicious accounting practices.

Snigger

Nigel Farage has lost his LBC radio show after comparing the Black Lives Matter movement to the Taliban.

The station announced that Farage was stepping down with immediate effect.

Officially, LBC gave no reasons for his departure. But insiders claimed there had been pressure from staff and fellow presenters who were furious about his comments.

One said there had been long-standing unhappiness over Farage being employed by the station, but the Taliban comment was “the final straw”.

The audience was great, the advertising just fine.

Thus there’s rather an opportunity there. To establish, using a marquee name as the hook, a new radio station specifically aimed at that audience.

Think Sirius radio taking Howard Stern. Or the creation of Fox News, aimed at those ill served – politically – by he extant media.

The question becomes how expensive is it to gain that licence and infrastructure to be able to broadcast?

There would also be the old Ukip problem. To navigate that line between being different and even offensive to current media mores while not falling over the edge into BNP territory. Something Farage did manage at Ukip (I know, I was there and took part) and post-Farage Ukip didn’t, or not entirely.

The selection of the other people to carry other shows therefore becoming something rather important…..

Anyone know what sort of hydrogen fuel cell they’re using? Wiki, and their website, don;t seem to go into that level of detail.

PEM? Solid Oxide? Anyone know?

The US has a reputation for bouncing back from adversity quickly, but even by its own standards the turnaround has been remarkable.

Largely free market, largely capitalist, few worker protections – sure, in the breach and all that – is flexible enough to perform well near whatever is thrown at it.

We’re astonished, right?

Will that help or hinder economic prospects? There’s a convincing argument that a market in corporate control generates efficiency gains. A management that fails to deploy a company’s assets effectively to generate returns for shareholders ought to feel the discipline of a potential takeover. Yet a general principle doesn’t necessarily apply in every case. My guess is that a wave of corporate consolidation after this crisis is likely to reduce competitive pressures in the economy. This will not serve the interests of consumers.

Being able to screw the customers is to deploy corporate assets with greater efficiency. Not that it’s the sort of efficiency we want of course but the idea should be obvious and not need explaining.

Some people who work at McDonald’s have been subjected to sexual harrassment. Therefore McDonald’s should be sued.

Labor unions say one challenge is that McDonald’s insists it is not responsible for employees of its franchised operations, which make up over 90% of McDonald’s restaurants worldwide.

“[McDonald’s Corporation] is the employer of all who wear the McDonald’s uniform,” said Kristjan Bragason, the general secretary of the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions.

As that second assertion ain’t true – either morally or in law – the case rather falls apart, doesn’t it?

The founder of scandal-hit NMC Health and Finablr has claimed he is a victim of “serious fraud” and pointed the finger at company executives after the sudden collapse of his business empire.

The question is still open as to whether “victim” is quite the right description though……

If you hold but the one share in a company then you get to attend the AGM.

The Young’s Brewery one was reputed to be a good one. 5 minute speech from the Colonel or whoever was the patriarch and chairman, then “The lads have brewed up some special for us all to try, see you at the back” and the party started. Or so it is said.

Even to the point that one of the perks of Blue Buttons was to be sent off to a few AGMs using the stockjobber’s trading stock as the entrance fee.

It’s also true that now it’s possible to buy stock online and so size isn’t so much of an issue. One can buy one share when in the past you might be significantly encouraged to only buy in an economic lot. And on at least some platforms there is now no commission to pay, so buying very small lots doesn’t carry a minimum fee.

On the other hand, the process of getting registered as the actual – rather than through a nominee – owner seems to have changed.

At which point – what are AGMs usually like in terms of lunch? Or freebies handed out to those who attend? Are you lucky to gain a glass of tap water? Or are there always at least sarnies and a glass of something cooling?

The thought being, well, does spending £10 on the one share mean you get a reasonable lunch every year, if you actually attend?

So, peeps who have in fact attended AGMs. What’s the junket like. And please no, not about Berkshire Hathaway, I know about Woodstock for capitalists. The question is, the average listed stock, whadda ya get for turning up to hear the FD whining about interest rates?

Mr Sunak said it was “reasonable, proportionate and fair” to exclude those with taxable profits above £50,000, including law partners, freelance journalists and other professionals. The chancellor said this group had average incomes of about £200,000.

Regular columnists in major papers maybe. Someone with a sideline in true crime books or ghosting ‘sleb stuff maybe. But your average freelance journo on £200k a year?

It is to larff.

As an actual journeyman (ie, not a name) freelance, and working like buggery (one entire newspaper or magazine piece a working day, which is proper work when you include research etc) mebbe £40k a year?

Abramov says: “Market forces will ultimately regulate the industry in a very brutal manner, forcing massive ‘shut-ins’ [well closures] across the country before the market imbalance can improve.”

That’s why we use markets, right?

In slightly more detail. Anyone think of any answer to the oil glut that doesn’t involve shutting in wells? Starting with those with the highest production costs? At which point markets unadorned are delivering our desired solution, aren’t they?

With 14.6 million passengers last year, Jet2 is Britain’s third largest scheduled airline after Easyjet and British Airways. Before the crisis, shares in Dart hit a record high of £19.46, valuing the company at £2.9 billion. Those shares closed down £13, or 2 per cent, yesterday at 599p.

They’re down £13 from their peak and down 2% yesterday but not £13 is 2%.

The original Chris Steak House (1927–1965)
Chris Steak House was founded on February 27, 1927 by New Orleans entrepreneur Chris Matulich.[8] It was located at 1100 North Broad Street near the Fair Grounds Race Course, seated 60 people, and had no parking lot. During Matulich’s 38-year management, the business was sold six times, failing each time, and enabling him to buy the restaurant back cheaply from the purchasers

From floristry to food deliveries: ‘I created a new business in a week’

This being the entire point of the game. Free entry into the market.

Sure, 98% of such attempts fail, many are entirely doolally to start with. And yet people being able to do this is the motor that drives the entire society forwards.

Perhaps we should try to recapture some more of that most profitable liberty once this is all over?

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We’re going to have to end this lockdown of the UK economy and sooner rather than later. Yes, this will mean more people will die. Probably. We’re still going to have to do it.