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

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

4.0

One of the most fascinating books I've ever read, small sample size aside. Violent crimes fill books and streaming services with tales of psychopaths that cause stories that can barely be believed. Rarely are white collar crimes like that. It's a bunch of short minded people born on third base thinking they hit a triple taking advantage of their position they've reached in life to make millions without repercussions. Jan Marselak and Markus Braun created Wirecard and were illegitimate from day one. Taking advantage of every loophole that ever existed and relying on businesses across Asia that didn't have the regulation that the Western world has, they ponzi schemed their way to a 20 billion dollar evaluation. And when McCrum started to peal back the layers, it involved porn and gambling rings across Europe, Russian spies and a smear campaign against anyone that spoke ill of Wirecard. For someone outside the financial world, this is the biggest eye opener possible of how easy it can be to fool the world because Ernst and Young look terrible here as they never found a lick of criminality until someone else did all the dirty work for them.