and filings they deployed the powers of social media. their messages are spreading like wildfire social media is capable of critical thinking and thousands of. cars. on the streets they know women who are changing the world to. digital news stories marketing. to w. . it was celebrated just months ago as the daring newcomer in germany's musty blue chip index now payment services services provider wire card is fighting for its reputation amid claims of wrongdoing at its highest level we'll think you went on the details. and enjoyed your telecom projects regular profit the years ahead so

what's eating at the c.e.o. of one of germany's largest mobile carriers. i'm stephen beers in berlin thanks for joining us it was recently the darling of the german business press now it's fighting for its reputation wire car the payment services provider has growing business propelled 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 singapore branch and among seniors it executives the fallout so far the 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 the 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 how to 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 cardstock 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 briefly to the allegations against wire card shows so twenty nine thousand stocks of 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 suggests 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 quote seeing report a preliminary report that is from

a legal firm that's been hired by one court cut itself to look into its singapore operations and this report again suggests that there's been forgery singapore all 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 had to find that this is not the case and then we had a third report which suggested that senior executives out wild cards main office in munich may have been aware of some of the activity in singapore while caught by the way denies all of this so these reports come out and then the stock takes quite a tumble doesn't it it does i mean why cause 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 store absolutely 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 of taken a heck of

a tumble in fact they went down by forty percent in just three weeks there's been a couple of recoveries for example when when they announced they were going to take legal action against the financial times in these over these reports they got a little bit of a boost 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 y. card 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. all fly a cot meanwhile in munich they've been a little bit most circumspect to 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 looking at a specific journalist at the financial times into allegations of market manipulation all right so an interesting soap opera year and

a lot of consequences for business rob watts with business thank you very much for the insight what you telecom has an optimistic outlook for the future revenue will steadily rise in the years ahead as will profits that according to the telecommunication firms annual report the company after all expects to be a major player in the coming build out of the next generation five g. network across germany 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 milli seconds to the traffic around them with five g. this futuristic reason 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 user germany is going its own way and not just copied other countries where they've already successfully developed legal frameworks for the granting of five g. licenses which would meet the expansion needs of the major industry leaders of. industry but 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 masts 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 frank daniel cooper daniel i'm guessing

telecom is the only company complaining about five. no they are not the only ones who are complaining and it seems that the c.e.o. of dog shit is in fact very frustrated and i guess when you really take a look closer at what was happening you can somehow understand his frustration because it is just showing again that germany is certainly a country we produce great cars we are our leading and also in other sectors but certainly not when it comes to digital is a show that we already heard some months ago from peter my east germany's minister of economics he was saying that he feels that it will be unrealistic to have germany fully covered with the five g. and that what we have to face is not even at the moment you will have a decent and fast running four g. network in many rule areas here inside of the country so with this situation it seems even more unimaginable 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 so telecom there may be challenging some wishful thinking daniel say witnesses can take a look at another reports the german state generated a record surplus of fifty eight billion euros and twenty eight that's its fifth annual surplus in a row despite a slowdown in the last quarter of the year the treasury benefited from bubbling taxes and social contributions thanks to low unemployment and the positive situation of the job market e.u. rules allow for a budget deficit of three percent at most germany last reported a slight minus in two thousand and thirteen. now back to daniel does this mean that everything with the german economy is peachy. well i mean the german economic powerhouse of germany is certainly still running on a very high level but we take a closer look at the numbers well why we are seeing this happening at the moment

well in fact germany was able really to make lots of money with taxes with taxes but this is also happening because of the zero percent interest rate policy that is still here in place by the european central bank so that's the other reason but when you take a look at the forecast investors don't believe that two thousand and nineteen is going to be as successful as for example two thousand and eighteen we still had to growth a one point four percent in two thousand and eighteen investors don't believe that this is going to happen this year again because we have to remember germany as a country very export oriented there's still so much going on with the straightest in the united states and china also here with europe so investors are not as optimistic now for this year then your group there for us in frankfurt thank you daniel now to some other some of the other business headlines from today.

greece's tourism industry is booming new figures show the country had more than thirty million visitors in twenty eighteen that's up nearly eleven percent in the previous year and that translates to some eighteen billion dollars for the greek economy tirzah accounts for nearly one tenth of preachy pete. ryanair must pay a three point four million dollars fine in italy after its antitrust authority ruled the flyers knew carry on luggage policy misled cut consumers and distorted competition a low cost airline had redefined free cabin baggage as only items that can be stowed under seats and charge for bags that fit in the overhead compartments. the biggest the tele factory in the world was has halted production well talian parent company ferraro investigates quality control problems a factory in france produces one third of the addictive chocolate hazelnut spread consumed in the world for arrow says none of the jars of nutella that have already been sold were affected. and staying with confessions it's

a dream come true for sweet tooth fashionistas chocolates cheers and designers teamed up to create tasteful and tasty outfits for this use so long to talk law fair in belgium if i'm pronouncing that right one delicious joint creation was made out of eight kilograms of belgian chocolate and total designers presented thirteen chocolate dresses the aim was to strengthen belgians reputation as a leading and innovative chocolate maker and as a fashion. that's it for me in the business team i'm seeing there's in berlin and so it's watching.

where i come from we have to fight for a free press i was born and raised in a new town the danger ship with just one t.v. shadow and a few in his favor us one official information as a journalist i have worked on the strength of many cantrips and their problems are

almost the same for doing social inequality a lack of the freedom of the press and the russian who can afford to stay silent when it comes to the fans of the humans on seeing the microphones who have decided to put their trust in us. my name is johnny carson and work. hello and welcome to arts and culture i'm david leavitt's coming up on this edition . team seventy five take the brittle boards by storm with their album a brief inquiry into online relationships and speaking of dating could this be your

next romantic dinner a new report details what you can expect to see on your plate in twenty nineteen and beyond. and can this 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 chum bill one dumped ice water on a deputy prime minister this year though the focus was on the music mostly i thought it would superstar hugh jackman kicked off the show in fine style singing the theme from the movie the greatest showman and. this is the. use it should. use with so through the school the big winners of the night.

who picked up the best british group and british album of the it is except in speech saying the met c. healy gave a shout.