A Netflix-made documentary about a financial fraud centred on the German e-payments company Wirecard, this was quite gripping because of the style, and because of the constant hints we are about to find out what all this was really about - was the Russian FSB involved?
Really this is a straightforward fraud in which a company inflates its revenues, pretending that it is earning more than it is, in order to push up its share price. Quite a few people notice that there's something dodgy about its accounts, and the short sellers take notice, and so does the Financial Times in London - but the German government and financial regulators continue to defend their hi-tech darling, and the management takes various actions against the FT journalists, some legal, some much less so.
Eventually the auditors EY - under lots of pressure from the FT and others - announce that there is indeed a EUR19bn hole in the accounts, that amount of declared revenue that can't be found. But no-one from EY appears in the film or explains why it took them so long...what is the point of an audit if it doesn't find things like that? What were the company's bankers doing?
The film has to make financial fraud look interesting, so it resorts to some KABOOM style graphic novel frames, and lots of shots of exotic or scary locations. The main point of financial fraud, though, is that there really isn't much to see, which makes a film sort of tricky. Hence the hints that the FSB were involved, and shots of migrant trafficking in Libya and so on - if that's really relevant it's hard to see how.
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