Zurich Fintech Hires Wirecard Whistleblower

A former CEO of German fintech Wirecard is joining a Zurich-based startup. Blockchain fintech FQX is hiring James Freis as a regulatory technology officer, it said in an emailed statement Friday.

Freis helped uncover fraudulent activities at Wirecard, going on to lead the company as its CEO. His ties to the payments company, which continues to be at the center of an international financial scandal, have put him in the media spotlight.

We’re honored to have James Freis join our team. With his unique combination of skills at the intersection of regulation, financial market infrastructure, and technology he is ideally positioned to work on FQX’s RegTech Engine to enable programmable debt securities and compliance by design, FQX’s Co-CEO Benedikt Schuppli, said.

Freis started his career at the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York. From 1999 to 2005 he worked for the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in Basel. In 2007, he was appointed CEO of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

After a six-year term as managing director at Deutsche Boerse, Freis joined Wirecard as a manager in 2020. In June of the same year, the company was forced to admit that there was a 1.9 billion euros ($2.2 billion) hole in its balance sheet, after which long-time Wirecard boss Markus Braun was pressured to resign.

Freis stepped into the CEO position which he held for seven months.