
Wirecard’s real business relied on small number of customers - chewz
https://www.ft.com/content/7c466351-02fe-4d66-85a1-53d012de7445
======
samizdis
Copy of article (minus a graphic) available at:

[https://geekly.co.uk/wirecards-real-business-relied-on-
small...](https://geekly.co.uk/wirecards-real-business-relied-on-small-number-
of-customers/)

One, among many, interesting bits:

> _The German company appears to have an unusually lucrative relationship with
> a collection of almost 4,000 porn, dating and related customer service
> websites registered to 175 companies in the UK and Cyprus.

Pornographic websites in the network typically advertised three-day free
trials, before charging $39.95 per month after that. Wirecard kept about 15
per cent of the transaction volumes generated by these customers in the first
half of 2017, according to documents reviewed by the FT.

That compares with rates of about 3 per cent the German company charged larger
porn purveyors, such as Luxembourg-based LiveJasmin and the US-controlled
Chaturbate.

Charging such a high rate raises fresh questions about Wirecard’s compliance
with anti-money laundering regulations._

