James Freis

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On May 8, 2020, Wirecard AG, the payments processor and financial services provider based in Germany announced that effective July 1, 2020, James Freis would be joining as executive board member [52] ("Vorstand"). Wirecard had faced criticism and allegations of accounting irregularities over the prior two decades as it grew globally, but that notwithstanding, by 2018 it had become a member of the DAX stock index [53] of German blue chip companies. Wirecard was viewed as needing a "new start."

Freis's appointment was described as part of a "comprehensive change" in the management board, and he would be responsible for a newly created department "Integrity, Legal and Compliance." Together with the announcement of Freis's appointment, then CEO Markus Braun apologized for past turbulence at Wirecard, and both he and chairman of the supervisory board, Thomas Eichelmann, described Wirecard's business model as "sustainable and highly profitable." [54]

On June 18, 2020, Wirecard announced Freis had joined the management board with immediate effect, earlier than his planned start date of July 1. [55] Later that evening, Freis was introduced by Markus Braun in a video [56] in which Braun announced that Wirecard might have been the victim of fraud in connection with its funds held in overseas bank trustee accounts. [57] [58] Working through the night to investigate, Freis quickly concluded that there was obvious fraud in the purported Wirecard accounts and in the morning informed the supervisory board. [59]

On June 19, 2020, Wirecard announced the resignation of Markus Braun as CEO and the appointment of James Freis, one day after being appointed to the management board, as interim CEO [60] with sole power of representation. [61] After working through the weekend in reviewing the company's business activities and finances, Freis wrote an announcement published by Wirecard in the early morning of Monday, June 22, 2020, that the bank trustee account balances in the amount of 1.9 billion euro likely did not exist, and that previous Wirecard descriptions of its so-called third party acquiring business were not correct. Freis was in constructive discussions with Wirecard's lending banks and was considering restructuring options, [62] yet from Thursday to Monday, Wirecard's stock price had lost 90% of its value. [63]

On June 25, 2020, less than a full week after having joined Wirecard, Freis decided to initiate insolvency proceedings. [64] Bank creditors of Wirecard had been willing to roll over credit lines [65] for a period of months, and some initially criticized Freis for the decision to place Wirecard into insolvency, because they became forced to book losses immediately. [66] A year later, the insolvency administrator had generated only about €600 million selling most of Wirecard's assets, against more than €3 billion in banks and bondholder claims, and over €14 billion of total claims filed in the insolvency proceedings. [67]

Freis continued to oversee day-to-day operations of Wirecard, and announced to staff on September 11, 2020, that he was stepping down from management at Wirecard. The Wirecard scandal is likened to a "German Enron " in light of the company's inflated financial accounts and failure of its auditors to detect them [68] and as the greatest financial fraud in modern German history. [69]

In September 2020, the German Parliament launched an investigation of Wirecard generating voluminous records through the June 2021 final reports. Opposition lawmakers characterized the Wirecard scandal as a “collective failure of supervision”, criticizing numerous government authorities, the board of directors, and auditors. [70]

2021–present

More recently, Freis has founded a consulting firm advising on financial regulation and good governance. [71]

He is active with fintech and startup companies, including these affiliations:

Memberships

As an attorney, Freis is a member of the bar associations of New York, New Jersey and the District of Columbia. Current affiliations include:

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James Freis
James Freis portrait.jpg
6th Director of the United States Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
In office
March 2007 September 2012