I discussed this in a post in July 2020. Wirecard, founded in Germany in the 1990s, pioneered the use of a virtual prepaid card for online purchases. In 2009, while the world was reeling from the global financial crisis, Wirecard introduced a fraud prevention suite to help protect its card customers against con artists. In retrospect it looks ominous that this was the catalyst of a great burst of growth. Wirecard was soon a great success. A European Paypal. By the end of 2016 it was operating in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Turkey, and in 2016 it entered the United States. When I last posted on the subject here, though, the virtual feces had just hit the fan. The Financial Times had done a series of investigative pieces about its funny accounting practices. Then, in late April 2020, the auditor announced it could not sign off on the books. Company shares fell 26% in a day. On June 5, the police searched Wirecard's headquarters in Munich. Less than t...