The Wirecard case is the biggest and most incredible financial scandal in German history. A scandal that moves people because it tells of fraud, greed and two managers against whom serious accusations have been made. TVNOW reveals the big fake and gets closer to the main protagonists of the scandal, Markus Braun and Jan Marsalek, than any other documentary ever before. As the first ever docu-thriller, DER GROSSE FAKE – DIE WIRECARD STORY will paint a complex picture of Wirecard AG from March 31, 2021 in a mixture of documentary, with some exclusive interviews, and fictional thriller and takes a look into its darkest innermost and its deepest abysses.

The fictional part is based on a large number of detailed background interviews with supervisory board members, executives, former business partners, “friends”, confidants, investors, consultants and analysts as well as those who currently have to sweep up the remains of Wirecard AG in Munich. In order to be able to incorporate reports from people who do not want to appear on camera into the documentary thriller, their experiences were fictionalized. The dynamics and psyche of the now imprisoned Wirecard boss Markus Braun (played by Christoph Maria Herbst, STROMBERG) and his equally cunning partner, Jan Marsalek (played by Franz Hartwig, CHARITÉ), who is currently in hiding, are thus revealed in a well-founded manner. In this way, the thriller succeeds in getting closer to the two nebulous entrepreneurs than ever before.

The documentary part of THE BIG FAKE – THE WIRECARD STORY takes up the fictional scenes in an explanatory way. James Freis, who succeeded Markus Braun as CEO of Wirecard overnight on June 19, 2020, speaks exclusively and for the first time. Other interviewees include Peter Herold, Wirecard founder and namesake, and Michael Olaf Schütt, who talks about how he managed over 40 accounts in the USA to pay out money to online gamblers. Private investors such as Eberhard Schuler, who lost half a million euros, and short seller Fahmi Quadir, who had doubts about Wirecard early on, also have their say.

Nico Hofmann, CEO UFA GmbH, on the docu-thriller: “ THE BIG FAKE – THE WIRECARD STORY as a production was like a jigsaw puzzle: Investigation, journalistic background and narrative game sequences kept complementing each other right up to the last minute of editing. It is a twofold approach: as a psychogram of a heated spiral of madness and pressure to succeed, of egoism and money-driven craving for recognition, on the one hand, and the research into the Wirecard system on the other – from the world’s stock markets to domestic politics. Raymond Ley’s film is a parable of the seductions of our time, and it does not stop at the money market.

Henning Tewes, Co-Managing Director of TVNOW, adds: “We are delighted to be able to offer our TVNOW users this great documentary thriller about the Wirecard story. By combining journalism and fiction, the Bertelsmann Content Alliance has created a film that vividly depicts what is probably Germany’s most spectacular financial scandal in all its complexity and also offers new, exclusive insights.”

The docu-thriller THE BIG FAKE – THE WIRECARD STORY will be available exclusively on TVNOW from March 31, 2021.