German prosecutors drop FT investigation over Wirecard

German prosecutors have dropped their investigation into journalists of the Financial Times in connection with its reporting on the corporate fraud at payments firm Wirecard, reports Martin Arnold of the FT.

Arnold reports, “The criminal prosecution office in Munich said on Thursday it had ‘suspended the investigative proceedings’ against the two FT journalists after they ‘did not reveal sufficient evidence to support the suspicious facts’ raised by BaFin, the German watchdog.

“BaFin said on Thursday that it had ‘no objection’ to the prosecutor dropping its investigation into the FT journalists. It added that its parallel criminal complaint against short-sellers alleging market manipulation on Wirecard shares was still ongoing.

“The move comes 10 weeks after Wirecard declared insolvency, having admitted that about €1.9bn in cash was missing from its accounts. Its collapse, which has turned into one of Germany’s biggest financial scandals, followed years of reports by the FT that Wirecard’s accounts were misleading.

“The Munich prosecutor said its investigations found that the FT’s reports ‘are basically correct and at least from the point of view of the information available at the time, it was neither false nor misleading. There were no direct, concrete contacts with short-sellers.'”

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