In September 2014, the FT’s Dan McCrum received a tip about a fast-growing German fintech group, Wirecard. Over the next couple of years Dan and his colleagues uncovered the secret behind the payment company’s meteoric growth: many of the customers listed in company documents did not exist. In this episode Dan tells the story of the whistleblowers, shoe-leather reporting, hacking, suspected surveillance and legal threats that led to Wirecard’s downfall.   --- Review clips: CNBC, Deutsche Welle  Further reading: The double life of Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek https://www.ft.com/content/511ecf86-ab40-486c-8f76-b8ebda4cc669 Inside Wirecard https://www.ft.com/wirecard Dan’s 2015 story for Alphaville https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2015/04/27/2127427/the-house-of-wirecard/   See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.