Wirecard CEO suspects missing €1.9bn is fraud

Wirecard's boss said he suspected a large fraud was behind the disappearance of €1.9bn (£1.7bn) from the embattled payment's company's bank accounts.

The German company's auditor, Ernst & Young, refused to sign off its 2019 accounts after being unable to find the money, which was meant to be held in two escrow accounts. The missing cash could cause the withdrawal of €2bn of loans as soon as Friday.

Markus Braun, Wirecard's founder and chief executive, said: "It cannot be ruled out that Wirecard AG has become the aggrieved party in a case of fraud of considerable proportions." In a video message he did not identify the people he suspected of fraud.

Wirecard shares tumbled for a second day in a row and were down 45% to €22 at 09:05 BST. The shares have lost more than three-quarters of their value since 17 June.

The missing money makes up about a quarter of Wirecard's balance sheet and leaves Wirecard fighting to survive. The company, based in a Munich suburb, became a "fintech" star in Germany, propelling it into the Dax 30 index of leading shares two years ago with a value of €24bn, On Friday it was valued at less than €3bn.

On Thursday evening the company replaced its director of compliance, board member Jan Marsalek, with James Freis who will head a newly created "integrity, legal and compliance" department.

The company has postponed the publication of its 2019 results three times as it has sought to bat away allegations of fraud. As part of a long-running investigation the Financial Times reported in October that Wirecard employees appeared to have inflated sales and profits at subsidiaries in Dubai and Dublin to mislead EY for a decade.