and extravagant didn't. have to do is really know their stuff. think groups. with people and definitional. party and chat with musicians from around the world. groups every week t.w. . it was deliberate it just months ago was the daring newcomer in germany's musty blue chip index now payment services provider why are cards fighting for its reputation amid claims of wrongdoing at its highest level will fill you in on the details. also coming up georgia telecom projects regular profit in the years ahead

what's eating at the c.e.o. of one of germany's largest mobile carriers. and the head of aston martin says a no deal breaks it is utter madness so then why is he building a new plant and wales. i'm stephen beard is in berlin thanks for joining us was only recently the darling of the german business press now it's fighting for its reputation why are cars the payment services provider who's growing business propels it into germany's blue chip dax index last fall has been the focus of a series of news articles claiming fraud at the company's singapore grand branch and among senior executives the fallout so far a stock in freefall and a major media company under investigation. he was brought in to strike fear into the hearts of the major established banks marcus brown has been head of the financial services group wire card for seventeen years and has overseen rapid growth of the company during his time at the helm. card offer solutions for

electronic payments such as online payments and credit cards the company's profits hugely from the rise in online payments and this visa master card pay and pay among its partners over half of its business is in asia mostly in mainland china for years there have been recurring rumors of wrongdoing at work card saying the firm is mixed up in payments for illegal business such as online gaming sites bound in the united states since the end of january the financial times has run a series of articles making fresh allegations against wire cards payment units in singapore including accusations of fraud the company's always rejected these accusations nevertheless the share price fell sharply after the financial times reports the stock recovered briefly then collapsed again share price volatility like this is extremely unusual for a ducks listed company wire car became the plaything of stock market speculators. germany's financial regulator reacted by banning short selling of wire card stock

for two months the move is aimed at protecting investors from speculators until now there's been no confirmation of the fraud allegations state prosecutors are investigating the financial times journalist who wrote the articles containing the accusations the investigation is probing possible market manipulation and i'm now joined by rob watts with business he's been following this story closely rob there's a lot going on here in this story keith take us three flee to the allegations against wire card shows so twenty nine thousand stars and quite wealthy stops doing fine and then suddenly on the thirtieth of january we have the first of three reports from the financial times that puts the company in a bad light the first one suggested that a whistleblower had found. evidence of back dating and forging of contracts in an effort to inflate revenues at the singapore office so firstly because of these accusations about singapore office

a second report comes out also about the singapore office but this time it's quoting reports a preliminary report that is from a legal firm that's been hired by one court card itself to look into it singapore operations and this report again suggests that there's been forgery singapore and its own internal documents and no documents now why because as that's just the preliminary findings of this report actually the final report is going to fall down on ask she going to find that this is not the case and then we had a third report which suggested that senior executives out wildcards main office in munich may have been aware of some of the activity in singapore waqar by the way denies all of this so these reports come out and then the stock takes quite a tumble doesn't it does i mean why because had an incredible couple of years as you mentioned you know they made it into the tax thirty index toppling comment bank from there but there's a lot of great story absolutely yeah and it is

a great story and that's why it's attracted attention of journalists and financial reports in the way that it has and so since the thirtieth of january and the first of these really quite damning reports has a taken a heck of a tumble in fact they went down by forty percent in just three weeks there have been a couple of recoveries for example when when they announced they were going to take legal action against the financial times these over these reports they got a little bit of a boost to the ashes and then also we've heard as was mentioned in a report that the financial regulator in germany has put a stop to all short selling on why cod and that's also giving it a fourteen percent boost but it's still about thirty four percent so briefly what's been the response by the singapore and german authorities in this case well in singapore we know that the authorities there actually raided the offices. of why it caught me while in munich they've been a little bit most of. the authorities that they've said that they have been looking into allegations but we also know that the authorities in munich looking into the

financial times they say that they're looking at a specific journalist at the financial times into allegations of market manipulation all right so an interesting soap opera of year and a lot of consequences for business rob watts with the business thank you very much for the insight georgia telecom is putting on an optimistic face as it looks toward the future the german telecommunications giant projects twenty nineteen profits will rise four percent to almost twenty four billion euros the company after all expects to be a major player in the in the build out of next generation five g. network across germany in the years to come but it also has some frustrations. a click on a mobile app and moments later the self driving car you've just ordered it appears the customers get in and they can lean back and watch a film while the electronics take over the driving reacting within milliseconds to the traffic around them with five g. this futuristic region will become reality the new network standard will transfer

data one hundred times quicker than l.t.e. corporations like telecom sniff big business but at the full year earnings announcement telecom focused on problems with the legal aspects of the new technologies and we're not happy he's or germany is going its own way and not just copied other countries where they've already successfully developed a legal framework for the granting of five g. licenses which would meet the expansion needs of the major industry leaders of. the industry but of doing telecom is critical of the projection that by the end of twenty twenty two ninety eight percent of german households will be provided with the new five g. standard the number of relay musts will have to increase tenfold to seven hundred fifty thousand in just three years according to a consultancy firm telecom says that's unrealistic the company has launched legal action against the government over the rules for granting the frequencies that follows rivals vodafone and telefonica who have launched their own actions the

future looks distinctly shaky for the planned frequency auction in march. and let's go now to our financial correspondent in frankfurt daniel cope daniel what's going on there what should we make of these complaints by telecom. well dr taylor comus frustrated and i guess we can somehow also understand their frustration because once again germany assuring that we might have a great car industry or that we're leaving in other sectors but certainly not when it comes to teachers how is ation i we already heard some months ago by germany's minister of economy stating that he feels that it will be real. listing to have germany fully covered with a five g. network well we have to face that not even at the moment you will have a decent and fast running four g. network in many rule areas here inside of that country so with this situation now it seems not even imaginable that by the end of twenty twenty two ninety eight per cent of germany's households will be able to use the new five g.

standard and on top one hundred also in the report it seems even more unrealistic that the number of those relay mass will indeed increase to seven hundred fifty thousand in just less than three years so telecom may be calling else wishful thinking there now of course also relevant to this five g. build is germany stands for while away we have any news there well there's the next problem we have to remember who way is the leading manufacturer of equipment for the so-called fifth generation and seller neck works but they're being criticized for having very tight connections with the chinese government so there is the fear of possible espionage germany has not decided but we heard the u.s. secretary of state my pompei was saying yesterday that the u.s. does not want to cooperate with countries who are using the technology of the company and he called again the company once again very dangerous and a threat to national security so this puts even more pressure now on germany we

have to wait how everything will be decided right so plenty of questions with do you cold there for us in frankfurt. now president donald trump says u.s. firms should quote step up their efforts on five g. that superfast fifth generation wireless networks that we've been talking about i want five g. and even sixty technology in the united states as soon as possible mr trump tweeted american companies must step up their efforts there is no reason that we should be lagging behind on something that is so obviously the future trump administration has recently increased efforts to block china's huawei as we just discussed there from the five g. build out in the u.s. citing security reasons. so sixty already james bond's vehicle of choice to get out of a sticky situation is an aston martin of course but the iconic british carmaker can't quite skate brags that its c.e.o. now says a british departure from the e.u.

without a deal would be quote madness that would deal a blow to his company. aston martin ranks among the most iconic british brands and he's hoping to keep it that way it's building a brand new assembly plant next to a former royal air force base in wales have confidence in the u.k. car industry amid the turmoil it breaks it maybe but the luxury carmaker isn't ignoring the fact that the future for u.k. manufacturers remains i'm certain i. still have to believe that we'll get to a proper right decision because a no deal. is is has frankly madness and i know i know people don't like to listen to experts but it is from an industry point of view. because you really affect the. ability of a manufacturer to to work in the way that we've become accustomed to. dealt

a blow to the u.k. car market when it pulled plans to build one of its new models in england blaming breaks it but its competitor in the affordable car market french owned vauxhall is taking a different view is planning to produce a new line of vans in britain. it would not be true to say that a hard bricks it automatically means the closure of plants in the united kingdom neither for us nor for other manufacturers but it would certainly mean they come under greater scrutiny britain based jack you're a land rover has warned it could only stockpile enough parts to cope with a few days of breaks it disruption as manufacturers from around the world prepared to take a closer look at their presence in the u.k. those brands born and bred in britain are just looking for certainty thanks for watching.

digital more years. for women for internet activists one mission the battle for freedom and dignity. against repression and violence they deployed the powers of social media.

their messages are spreading like wildfire social media to critical to the bone and thousands of books on the car bomb on. the streets and. more changing the march to. the. digital. starts march. hello and welcome to arts and culture i'm david leavitt's coming up on this edition . team seventy five take the brit awards by storm with their album a brief inquiry into online relationships and speaking of dating could this be your

next romantic dinner and your report details what you can expect to see on your plate in twenty nineteen and beyond. and canvas woman chinese video artist kwan shall teach us how to live more and the moment. first though britain's top prize for pop music the brit awards have quite the history it was at the brits that madonna got whiplash when she fell off stage wearing a giant cape and where the singer of. dumped ice water on a deputy prime minister first year though the focus was on the music mostly. how they would superstar hugh jackman kicked off the show in fine style singing the theme from the hit movie the greatest showman and. says that. you can say it should move you switzerland through the school the big winners of the night. who picked up the best british group and

british album of the yeah it is except in speech saying the met see haley david.