today's FT front page headline 'Wirecard relied on three opaque partners for almost all its profit' 'Dubai-based unit of German payments group was not audited'

'Al Alam Solutions, a Dubai-based payments processor with skeletal operations in the Emirate, is the largest of the three “partner” entities. Wirecard refers clients to Al Alam in return for a share of any processing fees as commission. A former Al Alam employee said the business had six or seven staff in total and “the boss” was Oliver Bellenhaus, a Wirecard executive. The other partners are PayEasy Solutions, a Philippine payments group that shares an office with a Manila bus company, and Singapore-based Senjo. '

https://www.ft.com/content/a7b43142-6675-11e9-9adc-98bf1d35a...

Whilst naked short selling can be an offence, in this case the insider trading is the of the short selling before the news came out. The fact its naked happens to be irrelevant to the insider trading case.

there was more short selling activity in advance of the articles which is now the reason for the investigations (and for the ban of short selling)

I think the German definition of insider trading is more loose and could potentially include someone profiting from spreading fake news.