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

The famous saying goes, `You can fool all people sometime... but not all people all time''. Bigots and Despots of the 21st Century have learned to work around it. They now concentrate on increasing the sub-set of `some people all time'' to increase their leash on democracies. Frauds or societal wrongs in democracies are not facilitated by the co-conspirators but by men and women in the system who have a conscience and don'tdon't speak up. Even if these whistleblowers come out with the details, they require bold and honest journalists to highlight the wrongdoings raised.

Wire Card was this big German fintech company. It was supposed to be the Pay Pal of Europe. However, under the skin, it was a company manipulating balance sheets, indulging in money laundering, facilitating online gambling, and paying drug dealers. This Company, at its peak, was valued at US$ 28 billion and a little more. Finally, a dozen whistleblowers and a bold journalist Dan McCrum from Financial Times busted the bubble, or else it would have gone on for a longer time.

When Dan McCrum began his investigations into the Company based on an alert from a whistleblower, he was accused of being in league with short sellers to facilitate stock price manipulation. He was spied upon, legal proceedings started against him, and he was generally accused of trying to sabotage Germany's / Europe's fintech giant. As a result, Dan McCrum's systems and investigation teams were regularly subject to hacking and phishing emails.

The auditors Ernst and Young'' who had looked after WireCard accounts for nearly 10 years, surprisingly did not find anything amiss in this Company, leave alone scandalous. The German authorities, surprisingly, could not guess what the Company was up to.

Dan McCrum did not crack the story over a few assumptions. Instead, he investigated the wrongdoing for six years, collected evidence painstakingly and reported them with a lot of responsibility. During this time, his integrity was questioned, his personal safety was threatened, and he feared for his family's safety.

The evil face of Wire Card was Jan Marselek, who was in cahoots with two countries' intelligence agencies. He was the COO of Wire Card. He played by every dirty trick that could be conceived. Finally, wire Card gets exposed by one of its tall claims, which is how the cookie crumbled. Read the book to find out what it is all about !!! After having done all the Monstrosities stuff, he just vanished into thin air when the scandal was about to explode. He is suspected of being in hiding under an assumed identity in Russia. To top it all, he was a high school dropout!

Dan'sDan's book is compelling, though it involves excessive detailing of his life during the investigation. If you can endure that, this book is a thrilling read. Kudos to Dan for having pioneered such an investigation and documenting his experience. I heard the book on Audible. It has been narrated by the author himself, and the emotions he felt at various point of the investigation is apparent in the audible version.

One wishes that many journalists worldwide do such investigations and tear the mask off the noble and victorious faces of many dubious billionaires, bigots, oligarchs, and despots.

You can also see the documentary ""Skandal! Bringing Down Wirecard"" if visual medium impresses you. However, you must know the issue to think critically about that narcissistic public figure or the shady businessman growing exponentially in everything he or she does. That may save your society.