German unicorn payments processor Wirecard (WDI.DE) filed for bankruptcy today, the result of widely reported internal fraud. 

Fresh off a huge loss in their WeWork investment, Wirecard’s bankruptcy is another embarrassment for Softbank, which had invested 900M Euros in the failed FinTech company.

Wirecard Files For Insolvency, Court Protection | PYMNTS.comWirecard, the Germany payment services company, is filing for insolvency after auditors disclosed $2.1B of deposits were missing from two Philippines banks.www.pymnts.com

Fortunately for Softbank, they appear to have resold their investment to other institutional investors, who presumably will take the loss.

SoftBank's $1 billion Wirecard bet under scrutiny as troubled payments processor fights for survivalSoftBank's investment and partnership with Wirecard has renewed scrutiny about the Japanese tech conglomerate's investment strategy.www.cnbc.com

Softbank reminds me of the Broadway play The Producers: are they secretly making money when their investments fail? It now makes me curious about what other large companies they have investments in. Perhaps it’s a good time to consider shorting Softbank or their holdings?

Further reading

Reading the Tea Leaves to make bets on TechWhat are the early warning signs that an industry will not meet expectations? Sometimes investing feels like a game of Titanic: hold your sinking stock too long and you'll go down with the ship. I ...cake.co

Someone I admire worked at WeWork and I got fascinated by how it operated. I could not believe how much money it was raising and I remember thinking, perhaps I don’t understand big money blitzscaling anymore. Magic Leap, WeWork, Uber...perhaps time had passed me by.

Bloomberg did a story on a WeWork whistleblower yesterday:

Apparently, she looked like a Karen in the day, but now she looks like she had it right.