
The Big Four: Accounting Firms Under Scrutiny
Wirecard AG, once one of Germany's largest payment processors, collapsed into bankruptcy in 2020 after journalists exposed a two-billion-euro hole in its accounts that had gone undetected for years. The film uses that collapse as its case study for a wider question: how did the world's four biggest accounting firms, the auditors trusted to catch exactly this kind of fraud, sign off on Wirecard's books for so long? It traces the mechanics of modern auditing, the fees these firms earn from the same companies they are meant to police, and the conflicts of interest built into that arrangement. Interviews and news footage walk through the timeline of Wirecard's rise and sudden failure, from a celebrated fintech darling to a criminal investigation, with regulators and former employees describing what the audits missed or ignored. The film treats Wirecard not as an isolated scandal but as evidence of a structural problem in how corporate accounts get checked worldwide.