Nearly half of Wirecard’s debt, raised months before its collapse, came as a result of SoftBank’s involvement

When influential tech investor SoftBank Group Corp. backed Wirecard AG last year, it gave a $1 billion jolt to the German fintech, and temporarily quieted questions about the legitimacy of its profits.
Wirecards rapid unraveling last month in an accounting scandal is bringing new scrutiny to the deal. SoftBank lent its name and reputation to the digital-payments company, but offloaded the financial risk to other investors. Mutual funds and pension funds that bought Wirecard bonds are sitting on massive losses.
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