UPDATED
Wirecard Suspends Executive After $2.1 Billion Goes Missing

 Eyk Henning, Jan-Patrick Barnert and Sarah Syed

Bloomberg June 18, 2020


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(Bloomberg) -- Wirecard AG has temporarily suspended its outgoing chief operating officer after revealing that auditors couldn’t find about 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in cash, spooking investors and casting doubt on the company’s leadership and survival.

Jan Marsalek has been suspended on a revocable basis until June 30, the company said in a statement on Thursday. James Freis, who had already been tapped to lead the company’s new “integrity, legal and compliance” department starting next month, will begin in his role immediately. Marsalek was due to step down from the COO role to a new position in charge of business development, Wirecard said in May.

The company suffered one of the worst stock slumps in the history of Germany’s benchmark index on Thursday after revealing that auditors had been unable to find billions of cash that was supposed to be held in Asian banks. The company warned loans of as much as 2 billion euros could be terminated if its audited annual report, delayed for the fourth time, was not published by June 19.

Marsalek had tried to get in touch with the two Asian banks and trustees over the past two days to recover the missing money, but wasn’t successful, according to a person familiar with the matter. It’s unclear if the funds can be recovered, the person added.

A representative for Wirecard didn’t respond to requests for comment. Marsalek couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Ernst & Young was unable to confirm the location of the cash in certain trust accounts, and there was evidence that “spurious balance confirmations” had been provided, Wirecard said in a statement on Thursday. That’s about a quarter of the consolidated balance sheet total, Wirecard said.

“We are stunned,” said Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Deka Investments, a top 10 shareholder at the firm. “A new start in terms of personnel is more urgent than ever.”

The escalating crisis also calls into doubt the future of Chief Executive Officer Markus Braun, who is the company’s biggest shareholder. Braun has been at the helm since 2002, building the company from a startup into a payment provider whose technology facilitates transactions around the world.

Braun painted the company as a potential victim in a separate statement. The CEO has been resisting calls to resign and aggressively defending the company against accusations of accounting fraud, led by a series of articles in the Financial Times.

“It is currently unclear whether fraudulent transactions to the detriment of Wirecard AG have occurred,” said Braun, adding that the company will file a complaint against unnamed persons.

The stock dropped as much as 67% to 35.85 euros in Frankfurt on Thursday, the biggest fall on record and the largest for a member of Germany’s prestigious 30-company DAX stock index. Wirecard’s bonds also suffered a record plunge.

Loan Issue

Wirecard warned loans up to 2 billion euros could be terminated if its audited annual report was not published by June 19. Analysts at Morgan Stanley estimated that Wirecard has available cash of around 220 million euros, if it cannot locate the missing $2.1 billion.

“While we would expect Wirecard to seek covenant waivers, if the banks call 2 billion-euros of debt and that is mostly drawn, then we expect investor focus to turn to the balance sheet and liquidity,” said analysts at Morgan Stanley in a note on Thursday.

Wolfgang Donie, analyst at NordLB, warned that the “overall situation at Wirecard can only be described as insupportable and the scandal is now becoming a crisis that is threatening the existence of the company.”

German financial markets regulator BaFin said it is examining Wirecard’s disclosure on Thursday as part of its investigation into whether the company violated rules against market manipulation, according to a spokeswoman.

In September 2018, Wirecard reached a market valuation of 24.6 billion euros, replacing Commerzbank AG in the DAX alongside titans such as Volkswagen AG, Siemens AG, and Deutsche Bank AG. Following Thursday’s collapse, the company is valued at around 6.7 billion euros.

“Wirecard’s retreat could be terminal,” said Neil Campling, an analyst at Mirabaud Securities.

Asian Banks

EY told Wirecard that their results will require additional audits after two unnamed Asian banks that have been managing the company’s escrow were unable to find accounts with about 1.9 billion euros in funds, Wirecard said in an additional statement. Those funds had been set aside for risk management, the company said.

Wirecard said last month that the latest delay in publishing results was due to Ernst & Young needing more time to finish its review, and that the auditor hadn’t found anything material within the scope of its work. Wirecard had previously postponed the results while it was working with KPMG on a probe into allegations about accounting irregularities.

Braun has aggressively fought against allegations that the company’s financials have been mismanaged. Braun has also resisted calls from activist investors TCI Fund Management Ltd. to step down, promising to regain investor confidence and improve compliance and control.

Wirecard headquarters were searched in May by German prosecutors as part of a probe involving the company’s senior management.

Wirecard said in February that full-year revenue rose about 38% to 2.8 billion euros while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization jumped 40% to 785 million euros.

(Updated with Wirecard statement, CEO comment, context on loans.)

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

Crypto Card Issuer Wirecard Says It’s Missing $2.1B in ‘German Enron’ Scandal

 Paddy Baker CoinDesk June 18, 2020


Former German blue-chip Wirecard has said a quarter of its total balance sheet is missing after “spurious cash balances” were provided to its auditor, EY.

In an explosive statement Thursday, the Munich-based card issuer, said a total of €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) could not be accounted for and that some members of the company had purposefully filed false or misleading statements “in order to deceive the auditor and create a wrong perception of the existence of such cash balances.”

Wirecard admitted the accounting hole was roughly a quarter of the company’s total balance sheet.

A former poster child of the German tech scene, Wirecard has been heavily scrutinized over supposed irregularities in its accounting practices. The company was accused last year of fraudulently inflating sales and profit figures, and that it was using client funds held in escrow accounts to boost cash balances.

Wirecard’s share price has tanked. At press time, shares traded at the €36 (~$40) mark, down 70% since Wednesday. The credit card issuer had once been one of Germany’s most prestigious companies, even surpassing Commerzbank with a €24.6 billion( ~$27.6 billion) market valuation in September 2018.

Lionel Barber, former editor-in-chief of the Financial Times, said on Twitter that Wirecard was turning into a German version of the Enron scandal.

Wirecard subsidiary Wirecard Card Solutions branched out into crypto when it became the issuer for crypto payment card providers Crypto.com and TenX. Wirecard had also partnered with TON Labs, the developer house behind Telegram’s blockchain. A court document also claimed Wirecard’s COO participated in the $1.7 billion token sale in 2018.

It’s unclear if Crypto.com, which only rolled out is payment card in Europe last month, is planning on switching its card issuer. CoinDesk reached out for comment but hadn’t heard back by press time.

Wirecard had already delayed the release of its audited financial statements and Thursday was supposed to be the final publication date. Today’s news has now pushed this back indefinitely. The delay means creditors will be able to pull up to €2 billion (~$2.2 billion) worth of loans as of Friday.

Wirecard’s board is now working “intensively” with EY “towards a clarification of the situation.”

 German payments firm Wirecard and its missing billions

Reuters June 18, 2020

(Reuters) - Billions of euros of loans to Wirecard could be called in as early as Friday after the German payments company said its auditor had refused to sign off on its 2019 accounts, knocking more than half the value off its shares on Thursday.

Wirecard said that its auditor EY had informed it that sufficient evidence could not be found for 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in cash balances on trust accounts - or around a quarter of its balance sheet total.

Following are some key facts about the company and pivotal dates in its recent history:

* Founded in 1999, Munich-based Wirecard has 5,800 employees in 26 countries around the world. It processes digital payments for both consumers and businesses and reported revenues of more than 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) in 2018, more than triple the figure in 2014.

* Wirecard's expansion was driven by its chief executive and leading shareholder Markus Braun, an Austrian who has led the company since 2002. It was promoted to Germany's blue chip index in September 2018 when it ousted Commerzbank.

* In Feb. 2019, Singapore police said they were looking into reports by the Financial Times of alleged financial irregularities at Wirecard's local office, allegations that had driven its shares sharply lower.

* In Oct. 2019, Wirecard rejected any impropriety after the Financial Times published documents on the company's accounting practices which it said appeared to indicate an effort to inflate sales and profits.

* An independent investigation by auditor KPMG published in April this year found Wirecard did not provide sufficient documentation to address all allegations of accounting irregularities made by the Financial Times.

Wirecard said the KPMG audit had not uncovered any incriminating evidence to support allegations it manipulated its accounts and it would not restate its accounts for the years 2016 through 2018.

* On June 5, Munich prosecutors said they had searched Wirecard's headquarters and opened proceedings against the payment company's management board as part of a market manipulation probe initiated by financial regulator BaFin.

Prosecutors said the company was suspected of having issued misleading information which may have impacted Wirecard's share price between March 12 and April 22.

($1 = 0.8885 euros)

(Editing by Keith Weir and Alexander Smith)

Wirecard shares plunge after saying auditor can’t find billions of missing cash

Published: June 18, 2020 By Steve Goldstein

The headquarters of the technology and financial services company Wirecard in Aschheim near Munich, Germany, on September 18, 2018. 

Referenced Symbols
WDI
-66.35% WCAGY
+5.27% DAX
-1.13%

Shares in Wirecard lost two-thirds of their value as the German payment processor said on Thursday its auditor can’t find evidence for a quarter of the cash on its balance sheet.

Wirecard WDI, -65.97% WCAGY, +5.27% shares lost 65% as the firm said Ernst & Young said it didn’t have sufficient audit evidence for €1.9 billion euros in cash.

“There are indications that spurious balance confirmations had been provided from the side of the trustee,” the company said.

“Previously issued confirmations by the banks were no longer recognized by the auditor. All parties involved are endeavoring to clarify the matter as quickly as possible,” said Markus Braun, Wirecard chief executive, in a statement. “It is currently unclear whether fraudulent transactions to the detriment of Wirecard AG have occurred.”

Wirecard said the banks managing the escrow accounts are two Asian banks that have investment grade ratings. The trustee, who has been in office since 2019, holds numerous mandates in Asia, Wirecard said.

The DAX DAX, -1.12% component postponed its 2019 annual financial statements for a fourth time, and if not completed by Friday, some €2 billion of loans can be terminated.

It is the latest twist in a long-running saga. The Financial Times reported in October that Wirecard staff appeared to have conspired to fraudulently inflate sales and profit at subsidiaries. Wirecard has denied those charges, while KPMG has conducted a special investigation and said it couldn’t prove the revenue of its third-party acquiring business.

“Even today Wirecard’s long standing CEO Marcus Braun has brazenly tried to portray the company as a victim of fraud and instead tried to focus investors on apparently strong reported revenue growth,” said Barry Norris, manager of the Argonaut Absolute Return Fund, who said the stock was his biggest short position. “During our first-quarter conference call we previously described the company as ‘having more red flags than you would see at a communist rally.’”

Wolfgang Donie, an analyst at NordLB, cut the stock’s rating to sell from hold, and his target price to 20 euros from 80 euros, saying the new allegations are leading to an “existential crisis.”

Germany’s stock-market regulator separately is investigating Braun over insider-trading allegations. Braun held 7% of the stock, according to FactSet data, making him the largest shareholder







Wirecard Bet Hammers Star U.K. Stock Picker

Suzy Waite and Lucca de Paoli
Bloomberg June 18, 2020




(Bloomberg) -- Star U.K. stock picker Alexander Darwall’s investment trust slumped as its biggest holding went into freefall amid accounting concerns.

Wirecard AG accounted for just over 10% of the European Opportunities Trust Plc’s investments as of May 31, according to the website of Devon Equity Management, where Darwall is chief investment officer.

When the German payments firm delayed the release of its annual report for a fourth time on Thursday, shares in Darwall’s trust fell 11.6%. That was the biggest daily drop since 2008.

Devon’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Pavry declined to comment.

Darwall built his reputation over almost a quarter century at Jupiter Fund Management Plc, where he at one time managed nearly 8 billion pounds ($10 billion) focusing on large bets on European firms. Many of his vehicles were heavily invested in Wirecard, which had proven to be a profitable wager for the manager. In the 10 years before Darwall left Jupiter, the German firm’s share price surged from 6 euros to around 150 euros.

Wirecard stock dropped by a record 62% in Frankfurt on Thursday after auditors were unable to find about 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) in cash, causing analysts to question liquidity at the German payments firm.

In January, Darwall apologized to investors of the trust about its large stake in Wirecard, and said at the time he would not have out-sized positions in any stock in the future. He also reiterated his confidence in the stock, despite a number of reports questioning the accounts of the growing business.

Investors pulled 4.5 billion pounds from Jupiter in 2019, which CEO Andrew Formica said was “almost entirely” because of Darwall’s decision to leave. His departure was announced in July last year.

(Updates with closing share prices in 3rd and 6th paragraphs)

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/wirecard-committed-elaborate-and.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/wirecard-fights-for-survival-as.html

RIP

Bob Barker, Famed Game Show Host, Dies at 99

Mike Barnes
Sat, August 26, 2023

Bob Barker, the energetic game show legend who for more than 50 years made every day entertaining as host of Truth or Consequences and The Price Is Right, has died. He was 99.

Barker, who also was celebrated for his animal-rights activism and for one hilarious brawl with Adam Sandler in the 1996 golf comedy Happy Gilmore, died Saturday morning of natural causes in his longtime Hollywood Hills home, his representative, Roger Neal, told The Hollywood Reporter.

“It is with profound sadness that we announce that the World’s Greatest MC who ever lived, Bob Barker, has left us,” Neal said in a statement.

After a decade toiling on the radio, Barker was named host of the nationally televised Truth or Consequences in December 1956 and stayed with that program through 1975. He joined a revival of The Price Is Right in September 1972 and remained the host there until June 2007, breaking Tonight Show host Johnny Carson’s record for continuous performances on the same network TV program.

On both audience-participation shows (on Truth or Consequences, contestants were asked a question, and if they didn’t have the right answer, they had to perform a zany stunt), Barker mastered the art of interviewing and coaxing the fun out of regular folks.

“So many hosts will ask a question of a contestant and pay no attention because they’re so busy thinking about what they, the host, will say next,” he said in a 2003 interview with the St. Petersburg Times. “If you ask a question or make a remark and listen, often that contestant will provide you with a little gem you can work with.”

Barker collected 15 Emmy Awards, including 12 for hosting. He was presented a Daytime Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame five years later.

The Guinness World Records named him TV’s Most Durable Performer as well as the Most Generous Host in Television History, having doled out, by its estimation, more than $200 million worth of prizes.

In 1987, Barker stopped coloring his gray hair because of the animal products used in dyes and chastised the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants, which he hosted, for their use of furs.

Upon arriving as host of the 1987 Miss USA Pageant, he declined to go on after learning that the contestants would be wearing animal skins. When fake furs were substituted, it generated huge publicity for animal rights activists.

Barker later severed ties with both pageants and, soon, he was closing each edition of The Price Is Right with the line, “Have your pets spayed and neutered.” He donated a total of $3.1 million to his alma mater Drury College/University to establish and support the school’s interdisciplinary Animal Studies Program.

In a statement, PETA noted that Barker was “one of the first stars to go vegetarian more than 30 years ago, urged families to stay away from SeaWorld, demanded the closure of cruel bear pits masquerading as tourist attractions, implored Hollywood to take action to protect animals used in film and TV and, as a Navy veteran, called for the end of military medical drills on live animals.

“His generous donation allowed PETA to open its West Coast headquarters, the Bob Barker Building, in 2012, and it stands as a testament to his legacy and profound commitment to making the world a kinder place. To us — and to so many animals around the world — Bob will always be a national animal rights treasure.”

Robert Barker was born on Dec. 12, 1923, in Darrington, Washington, but raised on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where his mother, Tillie, was a teacher. After his father died, he and his mom moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he attended high school and then Drury on a basketball scholarship, graduating in 1947. He trained as a Navy fighter pilot during World War II.

Following his discharge, Barker returned to Springfield, working at radio station KTTS while he completed his degree in economics. He read news and sports, and when one staffer failed to show up at the last minute, did his first audience-participation show.

Afterward, “My wife [Dorothy Jo] told me, ‘You did that better than you’ve done anything else,” Barker recalled in a 2000 interview for the Television Academy Foundation’s The Interviews website. He had found his calling.

“I was doing shows from grocery markets, drug stores, from movie theaters, from my own little studio,” he said. “I did man on the street shows when you are out on the street with a hand mic — live — and you are just talking with whomever comes along. And you have to make it entertaining.”

After spending time at a Florida station, Barker moved to Los Angeles and was hosting The Bob Barker Show on the radio when Ralph Edwards, the creator and original host of Truth or Consequences, heard him in his car while driving his daughters to an ice-skating lesson.

Edwards was looking for a host, and Barker, then 32, got an audition. He performed before 11 execs and later learned he got just one vote — “but I got the right one, from Ralph Edwards,” he said.

Edwards called Barker at five minutes past noon on Dec. 21, 1956, and told him he had the job. (For years, he and Edwards had lunch on that date and toasted their good fortune at 12:05 p.m.)

“It’s the greatest thing that ever happened to me professionally and the greatest thing that ever will,” he said. Truth or Consequences became the No. 1 show on daytime television and then went on five times a week in syndication.

In 1970, Barker gave future Family Feud host Richard Dawson his first game-show job (on Lucky Pair).

While he was doing Truth for nighttime viewing, Barker accepted producer Mark Goodson’s offer to host a daytime show, a new version of The Price Is Right. He said he would have asked for more money had he known that CBS daytime head Bud Grant would not have bought the show unless Barker was on board.

In 1998, upon the taping of the 5,000th episode of The Price Is Right, CBS dedicated Stage 33 at CBS Television City as the Bob Barker Studio.

Barker, who at age 50 began studying karate with Chuck Norris, gained a new generation of fans when he exchanged blows with Sandler’s hockey-player character, his partner in a golf tournament, in Happy Gilmore. (“The price is wrong, bitch,” Happy says after he slugs the game show host.)

“Nobody had heard of Adam Sandler until I beat him up,” Barker joked. They won the 1996 MTV Award for best fight, beating out the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Wrote Sandler on Saturday: “The man. The myth. The best. Such a sweet funny guy to hang out with. Loved talking to him. Loved laughing with him. Loved him kicking the crap out of me. He will be missed by everyone I know! Heartbreaking day. Love to Bob always and his family! Thanks for all you gave us!”

Outside of game shows, Barker flirted with a young lass on Bonanza in 1960; contributed his voice to Family Guy and Futurama; played Mel Harris’ father on the NBC drama Something So Right; and appeared as himself on episodes of The Nanny, Yes, Dear and How I Met Your Mother.

Dorothy Jo, whom he married in 1945, died of lung cancer in 1981. Barker never remarried but had a relationship with Dian Parkinson, a Price Is Right model, from 1989-91. She sued him and the program for sexual harassment (she dropped that suit) and wrongful termination (a judge dismissed that one). Several other former models also sued Barker and the show.

Survivors include his half-brother, Kent; half-nephews Robert and Chip; and half-niece Vickie.

The Hollywood Reporter

Through Philanthropy and Activism, Bob Barker Fought Animal Cruelty
Chris Cameron
Sun, August 27, 2023 

Bob Barker joins an anti-fur demonstration outside Fred the Furrier, a store on Fifth Avenue in New York on Nov. 25, 1988. (Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times)

Bob Barker, the longtime host of television game show “The Price Is Right” who died Saturday, made animal welfare advocacy a hallmark both of his career in show business and his life after retirement.

Over decades as the host of the longest-running game show in American television history, Barker, beginning in the 1980s, used his bully pulpit to remind millions of viewers to “help control the pet population; have your pet spayed or neutered.”

In one instance in 1996, he powered through his announcement even as an excited contestant clung at his arm, unable to contain her joy at having just won $51,676, or $99,602 when adjusted for inflation.

He continued that tradition for more than 20 years, until his very last show on June 15, 2007.

“There are just too many cats and dogs being born,” he explained in an interview with The New York Times in 2004. “Animals are being euthanized by the millions simply because there are not enough homes for them. In the United States, there is a dog or cat euthanized every 6.5 seconds.”

Barker supported a wide range of efforts to fight what activists saw as rampant animal cruelty in American society.

As one of the most prominent allies of the movement in Hollywood, he became a strict vegetarian, stopped dyeing his hair because the products were tested on animals and quit his job as host of the Miss USA and Miss Universe pageants because their organizers refused to remove fur coats from the prize packages.

“I am so proud of the trailblazing work Barker and I did together to expose the cruelty to animals in the entertainment industry,” Nancy Burnet, a fellow animal welfare activist who had been overseeing his care, said in a statement Saturday.

Barker put $25 million into founding the DJ&T Foundation, which finances clinics that specialize in spaying and neutering. The foundation was named after Barker’s wife, Dorothy Jo, and his mother, Matilda Valandra, who was known as Tilly.

Estimates show that the number of dogs and cats euthanized in shelters has been reduced to a fraction of what it was in the 1990s, at least partially attributable to “the drive to sterilize pet dogs and cats,” according to a 2018 study.

Barker also donated $5 million to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society at the urging of its founder Paul Watson, who used the money to buy a ship named for Barker for use in the organization’s anti-whaling campaigns.

“He said he thought he could put the Japanese whaling fleet out of business if he had $5 million,” Barker said of Watson in an interview with The Associated Press. “I said, ‘I think you do have the skills to do that, and I have $5 million, so let’s get it on.’”

Ingrid Newkirk, the president of animal rights group PETA, said in a statement Saturday that Barker had a “profound commitment to making the world a kinder place.”

Newkirk added, “To us — and to so many animals around the world — Bob will always be a national animal rights treasure.”

Barker’s efforts were born from a lifelong affinity for animals.

“I always had a pack of dogs with me,” he said in 2004, recalling his upbringing in the small town of Mission on the Rosebud Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota. “There were a lot of dogs in Mission. Not many people, but a lot of dogs.”

His dedication to opposing animal cruelty continued well into his retirement, as Barker continued to donate to organizations such as PETA, which named its West Coast headquarters in Los Angeles for Barker after he made a $2.5 million donation in 2012 for renovations.

c.2023 The New York Times Company

HE CAME TO EDMONTON TO PLEAD TO HAVE LUCY THE ELEPHANT REMOVED FROM THE CITY ZOO TO A SANCTUARY. HIS PLEAS FELL ON DEAF EARS.

Jane Goodall reverses stance, says Lucy the elephant should stay in Edmonton | Globalnews.ca

THIS IS THE ZOO'S USUAL GO TO EXCUSE

https://kitchener.citynews.ca/2023/03/22/edmonton-zoo-says-lucy-the-elephant-too-sick-to-be-moved-to-sanctuary-6734946/

UK

Gone Fishing's Paul Whitehouse meets sewage campaigners in hard-hitting documentary

Miranda Norris
Sat, 4 March 2023 

Paul Whitehouse (Image: BBC)

Witney sewage campaigners feature in a hard-hitting documentary by comedian and keen angler Paul Whitehouse.

Paul, who has starred in Gone Fishing with fellow comedian Bob Mortimer since 2018, sets out to discover whether the water companies are illegally discharging untreated sewage into our waterways to cut corners and protect profits.

In Our Troubled Rivers, he learns that firms are ignoring the regulations to only discharge sewage during heavy rainfall.


In episode one, he meets the founders of Windrush Against Sewage Pollution (WASP), retired maths professor Peter Hammond and ex-police officer Ashley Smith who are trying to hold the water firms to account.

Oxford Mail:

A group of volunteers, they investigate the pollution of the River Windrush and her sister rivers.

They collect and analyse information on water quality and sewage discharges.

In 2020, Thames Water reported spilling untreated sewage for 3,644 hours on 228 occasions from four of the sewage works on the River Windrush.

Without the work of WASP, the scale of the pollution in the Windrush Valley would have stayed hidden.

And as this is happening to rivers across the country Ash Smith has become an influential voice on the subject nationwide.

He was also instrumental in pressuring Thames Water to produce an interactive map providing near real-time information about its storm overflow activity.

In the documentary, the duo say the claim that raw sewage is only discharged during stormy conditions is “complete rubbish”.

Ash Smith claims that since 1989, £72billion has gone from the industry, mostly to stakeholders in China, Canada and Abu Dhabi.

They say they believe that the solution is to return the firms to public ownership.

Paul, 64, also meets pop star-turned-campaigner Feargal Sharkey in the show,

He has raised concerns about sewage pollution from Thames Water's Sewage Treatment Works at Church Hanborough contaminating bathing waters at Port Meadow in Oxford.

Paul says: “I still find it astonishing that the water companies would put untreated sewage into our rivers.”

And he meets Mark Barrow who shows him a collection of wet wipes and sanitary products he has collected from the River Wharfe in Yorkshire.

Paul tells him: “You wouldn’t get me in there, not in a million years.

“Oh my God. It’s liquid death. That is deeply unpleasant.

"It’s obvious that if you show that to people they’ll be appalled.

"It defies belief.”

Paul Whitehouse: Our Troubled Rivers, Sunday, BBC2, 8pm

New George Michael documentary tells how the singer was outed

Miranda Norris
Sat, 4 March 2023 

George Michael (Image: NQ staff)

A new documentary explores how Oxfordshire resident George Michael bravely defended his sexuality with 1998 single 'Outside' and became a gay icon.

The superstar, who had a home in Goring, was arrested in 1998 for a lewd act in a LA public toilet.

The two-part documentary to mark the quarter-century since the story broke tells the story of "how a potentially career-crushing event became a defining moment for gay liberation".

The singer stood up to the press and told CNN in 1998: “I’m a very proud man. I want people to know that I have not been exposed as a gay man.

“I feel stupid and I feel reckless and weak for having allowed my sexuality to be exposed this way, but I don’t feel any shame whatsoever. And neither do I think I should.”

The same year, he released the hit song Outside which satirised his arrest and had a video set in a men’s toilet with Michael dressed as an LAPD police officer.

This summer George Michael fans will flock to the Oxfordshire village the singer loved to celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday.

The Wham! star, who had a 16th century £3.4million home by the river, died on Christmas Day in 2016 aged 53.

Oxford Mail:

Three lifelong fans have collaborated with tribute artist Steve Mitchell to put on a celebration event at Goring Village Hall this June.

All the money raised by the GM60 event will go to the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity, a charity which George supported.

Rachel Alderton, from Bury, Lancashire, said: “Many of the fans meet in Goring village every year but this year we wanted to do something special and not only celebrate George’s 60th birthday together but raise money for one of his charities.

"He was an exceptionally generous man and his charitable work meant so much to him, so it’s important for the fans that we continue to do this for him.

"It was also important for us to thank the lovely locals for welcoming us to Goring, so we decided to make a donation to the Goring Village Hall fundraising appeal in support of the local community.”

A limited number of tickets can be purchased at www.gm60.co.uk

George Michael: Outed airs at 9pm on Channel 4 on March 6 and 7.