Money Men: A Hot Startup, A Billion Dollar Fraud, A Fight for the Truth

Description

This is the stranger-than-fiction story of Wirecard, once a $30 billion tech darling, now a smouldering wreck, by the journalist who brought it crashing down, for lovers of Bad Blood and The Billion Dollar Whale. When journalist Dan McCrum followed a tip to investigate the hot new tech company challenging Silicon Valley, everything about Wirecard looked a little too good to be true- offices were sprouting up around the world, it was reporting runaway growth and the CEO even wore a black turtleneck in tribute to Steve Jobs. In the space of a few short years, the company had come from nowhere to overtake industry giants like Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank on the stock market. As McCrum dug deeper, he encountered a story stranger and more dangerous than he ever imagined- a world of short sellers and whistleblowers, pornographers and private militias, hackers and spies. Before long he realised that he wasn't the only one in pursuit. Shadowy figures were following him through the streets of London, high-flying lawyers were sending ominous letters to his boss, and he was named as the prime suspect in a criminal inquiry. The race was on to prove his suspicions and clear his name. Money Men is the astonishing inside story of Wirecard's multi-billion-dollar fraud, Europe's biggest new tech darling revealed as a house of cards. Uncovering fake bank accounts, fake offices and possibly even a fake death, McCrum offers a searing expose that will finally lay bare the truth.

Dan McCrum is a member of the Financial Times investigations team. His reporting on Wirecard has been recognised with prizes from the London Press Club, the Society of Editors, the New York Financial Writers' Association, the Overseas Press Club, and the Gerald Loeb awards. He was also awarded the Ludwig Erhard Prize for economic journalism, a Reporters Forum Reporterpreis and a special award by the Helmut Schmidt prize jury for investigative journalism. In 2020, he was named Journalist of the Year at the British Journalism Awards.

Dan McCrum's deep dive into Wirecard was the financial investigation of the decade. Money Men tells the story from inside Wirecard's headquarters with entertaining drama and verve, but it also unspools the high-stakes reporting process McCrum and his colleagues carried out at the Financial Times against the odds. It instantly enters the canon of great financial crime books. -- Bradley Hope, co-author of New York Times bestseller Billion Dollar Whale A milestone in the history of investigative journalism. -- Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, awarding the Reporters Forum Reporterpreis Money Men is a rip-roaring ride into the underworld of the global economy. Dan McCrum is a proper reporter: there is no threat, con trick or hangover that will stand in his way. In today's pandemic of lies, courageous journalism like this is the medicine. -- Tom Burgis, Sunday Times bestselling author of Kleptopia This behind-the-scenes look into the years of work and the persistence that was required to topple Wirecard is nothing short of incredible. * AltFi * A fantastic book. Think of Dan as a bespectacled James Bond with a keyboard instead of a gun. * Steve Clapham, author of The Smart Money Method *