When audits go wrong

I am getting a lot of requests for podcasts. This one out of London was fun!

An auditor verifies the accuracy of a company’s financial records. He or she is supposed to spot any material misstatements, including those due to fraud or errors.

And yet in two of the largest financial frauds in history—the 2021 collapse of German payment firm Wirecard and the recent bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX—auditors had placed a stam…