A whistleblower’s dilemma in the house of wirecard (B)

• Main Authors: VADERA, Abhijeet K., CHEAH, Sin Mei, RAO-KACHROO, Mahima
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2023
• Subjects: whistleblowing; business ethics; fraud; white-collar crime; organizational behavior; organisational behaviour; fintech; Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/466; https://smu.sharepoint.com/sites/admin/CMP/cases/SMU-23-BATCH%20%5BPDF-Pic%5D/SMU-23-0013%20%5BWirecard%5D/SMU-23-0013%20%5BWirecard%20B%5D.pdf?CT=1692007337880&OR=ItemsView
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The two-part case follows the story of Pav Gill, the whistleblower who helped uncover one of Europe’s largest corporate frauds at Wirecard, the German fintech that went bankrupt in 2020. Founded in 1999, Wirecard grew from an inconspicuous company to a listed firm on the blue-chip DAX, Germany’s main stock index in 2018. Wirecard’s meteoric rise to fame was questioned by some but largely acclaimed by investors who knew little about its murky dealings beneath its successful façade. Part (A) begins in 2018 with Gill joining Wirecard’s Singapore office as the Head of Legal for the Asia Pacific region. Within a few months, Gill discovered multiple instances of falsified accounts, forgery, back-dated invoices, round-tripping, and questionable hiring practices. Despite escalating the matter to the Munich headquarters, his efforts on speaking up for justice backfired. Even after he left Wirecard, he was stalked by strangers and sabotaged at job interviews. At that point, he had to decide if he should remain silent or expose the scandal, and if so, how. Part (B) describes the frustration of Sokhbir Kaur, Gill’s mother, at Wirecard’s harassment and threats to her son’s life, before resorting to take matters into her own hands. She initiated contact with well-reputed journalists to expose the scandal—a move that stunned Gill. The Financial Times eventually interviewed them and published the story in January 2019, which spelled the beginning of the end for Wirecard. The case teaches students to recognise the contextual factors when deciding upon an appropriate course of action when faced with value conflicts. They will identify and develop strategies to articulate and work on value conflicts in a way that leads to less negative consequences. In addition, they will assess whether the case protagonist could have managed the situation differently (if at all).