Legitimation of Accounting Fraud : A Micro-Discursive Analysis of Wirecard's CEO

This study examines how Dr Markus Braun, CEO of Wirecard, constructed legitimation when faced with allegations from financial news reporters. It contributes to research into the legitimation strategies deployed by CEOs to construct a certain truth, justify corporate values and reassure stakeholders on business practices and draws on and extends Van Leeuwen's (2007) legitimation framework. Seven conference talks and nine financial news reports with Markus Braun were closely analyzed to reveal the discursive strategies employed to legitimize accounting fraud when facing allegations from the Financial Times. The findings reveal a focus on unverifiable prefactual future visioning that is difficult to contradict as it may or may not happen in the future; a de-agentization strategy from personal authorization to impersonal or expert authorization when facing allegations and thorny issues related to fraud; an altruistic and often abstract moralization; and organizational storytelling with emotional appeals and us/them dichotomies to position Wirecard as the hero. The findings advance understanding on how Braun discursively constructed and maintained corporate legitimacy during the Wirecard scandal and provide further insights into corporate legitimation by dishonest CEOs