2019年经济学人 Wirecard:迁怒于人 (1)（在线收听）

Those who profit from the misery of others are not often popular.

那些从别人的苦难中获益的人通都不受欢迎。

Short-sellers, who try to make money by selling borrowed shares and buying them back later at a lower price, have long been viewed with suspicion.

通过出售借入股票并以更低价买回的卖空型投资者一直以来都有嫌疑。

They are blamed for exacerbating price falls so that they can reap bigger returns. In times of market stress authorities often ban them.

人们指责他们加剧价格下跌以便获得更大的回报。在市场饱受压力的时期，官方经常会明令禁止卖空。

In 1610 regulators in Amsterdam forbade short-selling, blaming it for a fall in the value of the Dutch East India Company.

1610年，阿姆斯特丹监管者禁止卖空，指责这种行为导致荷兰东印度公司市值下跌。

Two centuries later Napoleon prohibited it as an act of treason.

两百年后，拿破仑将其作为一种叛国行为并明令禁止。

On February 18th BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, banned investors from taking new net short positions in Wirecard,

2月18日，德国金融监管者，德国联邦金融监管局禁止投资者对Wirecard建立新的空头头寸，

a German digital-payments firm, after its share price fell by over 40% in under three weeks.

这是一家德国数字支付公司，此前该公司股票价格在不到三周内下跌超过40%。

The crash marked a swift change in its fortunes.

此次暴跌标志着其市值的骤变。

In 2018 Wirecard displaced Commerzbank, a 149-year-old lender, in the DAX 30, an index of Germany's biggest firms.

2018年，Wirecard在德国DAX30指数（德国最大公司的指数）中取代了149年的贷款方Commerzbank。

Wirecard was worth 20.7bn euro ($23.6bn) on January 29th, just before the Financial Times reported that Edo Kurniawan,

1月29日，Wirecard市值为207亿欧元（236美元），此前《金融时报》刚刚报道称该公司新加坡办公室的

a senior executive in the company's Singapore office, was suspected of using fraudulent accounting techniques to inflate reported revenues.

一名高管Edo Kurniawan涉嫌利用欺骗性账目手段抬高报告收入。

The share price slid. On February 1st it fell further when the same newspaper reported

公司股价下滑。2月1日，股价进一步下跌，当时该报还报道称

that Rajah & Tann, a law firm commissioned by Wirecard to investigate the allegations,

受Wirecard委托调查这些指控的法律公司Rajah & Tann

had presented preliminary evidence to senior management in May 2018 suggesting the offences were a part of a pattern of book-padding.

在2018年5月就向高级管理层提交了初步证据，这表明这些违规行为只是账目填充模式的一部分。

On February 8th, as Wirecard's Singapore office was visited by the police, its market value fell to 11.7bn euro.

2月8日，警察来访Wirecard新加坡办公室，公司市值下跌至117亿欧元。

The firm refutes the reports, claiming that the Financial Times has acted unethically.

公司驳斥该报的报道，称《金融时报》的行为不道德。

Its management says an internal investigation is ongoing, and that a second,

其管理层表示，正在进行内部调查，

external investigation by Rajah & Tann is still under way and has produced "no conclusive evidence of criminal misconduct".

Rajah & Tann的第二次外部调查仍在进行当中并且“没有证据表明存在犯罪行为”。

The firm says it is working closely with the police in Singapore. It says it plans to take legal action against the Financial Times.