[stewbrew]

Well, I don't think this article does a good job at explaining the scandal. It seems to me the author had a thesis and is mostly occupied with explaining that. What makes wirecard interesting are all these connections with politicians, oligarchs, secret services etc. Some day in the not so distant future, somebody will make a tv series out of this.

[ajcp]

> I don't think this article does a good job at explaining the scandal.

I think that's because of their use of "origin". Both the title here and that of the article ("The Weird, Extremely German Origins of the Wirecard Scandal") can be taken two ways:

1. How the Wirecard scandal transpired

I think this is what you took it to mean. Where "origin" means the beginnings of the scandal itself. Much like saying "the origins of my success" when talking about my business career.

2. The environment that led to the Wirecard scandal being possible

I believe this is what the author actually sets out to do. In this the article didn't really look at the scandal itself, but rather the atmosphere -or place and time- from which Wirecard could have come happened in. This would be like saying "my origins" when describing that my family came from Wales.

[FabHK]

I agree that there are more salacious details that the author didn't really touch on (particularly concerning Marsalek), but I think the author's embedding of the scandal in the political and economic fabric of post-war Germany was quite well done.

(Oh, and I do hope there'll be a TV series!)