Allianz's $6bn scandal exposes Germany's cosy corruption

Allianz’s $6bn scandal is just the latest example of wrongdoing by a major German company.

Volkswagen
Volkswagen cheated on emissions tests between 2008 and 2015.
(Image credit: © Getty)

Even by the standards of the American justice system, it was a huge settlement. Earlier this month, the German insurance giant Allianz agreed to pay $6bn in fines to settle claims that its US investment arm cost investors billions of dollars by misleading them about the risks of some of its funds. It was a significant enough story in itself, and one that will have implications for the rest of the finance industry. But it was also far from the first major German company to be caught out in a scandal. There is something rotten at the heart of Germany – and that is becoming more obvious all the time.

Take the technology company Wirecard, for example. It was worth €24bn at its peak, and was feted as one of the fastest growing companies in Europe. But it collapsed into insolvency in 2019 after a series of accounting irregularities were exposed, and its chief executive was arrested. Shareholders lost all their money in what was, without question, the worst corporate collapse of the last decade.

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Matthew Lynn

Matthew Lynn is a columnist for Bloomberg, and writes weekly commentary syndicated in papers such as the Daily Telegraph, Die Welt, the Sydney Morning Herald, the South China Morning Post and the Miami Herald. He is also an associate editor of Spectator Business, and a regular contributor to The Spectator. Before that, he worked for the business section of the Sunday Times for ten years. 

He has written books on finance and financial topics, including Bust: Greece, The Euro and The Sovereign Debt Crisis and The Long Depression: The Slump of 2008 to 2031. Matthew is also the author of the Death Force series of military thrillers and the founder of Lume Books, an independent publisher.