MUNICH (Reuters) – A German court said on Friday that EY Germany cannot be held liable for damages in a lawsuit by former Wirecard shareholders over its allegedly flawed audits of the now-defunct payments group.
EY faced considerable fallout from the 2020 collapse of Wirecard – one of Europe’s biggest ever accounting scandals – including a two-year ban on taking on new audits for companies of public interest.
The auditing company could not be held liable because its reports on Wirecard did not qualify as a “public capital market information”, Judge Andrea Schmidt said in justifying the decision.
Peter Mattil, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said an appeal would be filed, while Daniela Bergdolt of the DSW association of private investors said that shareholder claims against EY would be asserted in other lawsuits if necessary.
An EY spokesperson said the auditing company still considered the claims to be unfounded.
The focus of the trial now turns to former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun and remnants of the company represented by administrators. However, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have said enforcing any claims against them will be difficult because the claims exceed the remaining assets by far.
Wirecard filed for insolvency in June 2020, owing creditors almost $4 billion, after disclosing a 1.9 billion euro ($1.98 billion) hole in its accounts that EY said was the result of a sophisticated global fraud.
The company, founded in 1999, began by processing payments for gambling and pornography websites before becoming a fintech star and a member of Germany’s blue-chip DAX index.
($1 = 0.9611 euros)
(Reporting by Joern Poltz, Writing by Friederike Heine,; Editing by Louise Heavens)
