I hope at the very least this Beissreflex that every shortseller is evil and should be investigated gets curbed. Wirecard since 2008 was having the support of Bafin of going against journalists and shortsellers who were calling out the company for market manipulation.

In Germany shortselling has an incredibly bad reputation. I think this is a problem.

The kneejerk insulted reactions to the original FT articles by BaFin and the German business press really haven't been up to par. They need to do a lot better.

That prosecuting journalists for reporting that a company is fraudulent should, at a minimum, be reserved for after it has been established that the company is not fraudulent.