FT wins Malcolm Forbes award from OPC for Wirecard reporting

The Overseas Press Club announced Tuesday that the Financial Times team behind the years-long investigation into the German fintech group Wirecard are the winners of its Malcolm Forbes award for best international business news reporting.

The judges credited the work of investigative reporter Dan McCrum, investigations editor Paul Murphy, and foreign correspondents Sam Jones and Olaf Storbeck in a category highlighting journalism that uncovers institutional corruption in business and government.

The judges said, “The remarkable multiyear takedown of a European fintech high-flyer, Wirecard, by a Financial Times investigative team culminated in 2020. From this courageous and resourceful journalism have followed arrest warrants, resignations and a gaping insolvency.”

“It is an honour to win such a prestigious award for our five-year long investigation into Wirecard,” said FT editor Roula Khalaf in a statement. “We are still witnessing —  and reporting on — the repercussions of our findings, demonstrating the deep impact and importance of the work Dan, Paul, Sam, Olaf and the team have undertaken over the years, in spite of the retaliation they endured.”

Additionally, the FT was awarded an OPC “citation” or honorable mention in the competition for the Kim Wall award for its groundbreaking Coronavirus Tracker, which remains the FT’s most viewed piece of content to date. The tracker set the standard for visual storytelling in the first weeks of the pandemic, becoming the place the world watched as cases rose in country after country. The category is dedicated to the best work on international affairs using creative and dynamic digital storytelling techniques.