Short-selling investors, including hedge funds, helped public pension funds and European regulators by exposing the massive accounting hole at high-flying fintech company Wirecard. Nearly $2bn in cash is missing and no one knows where it is or if it ever actually existed.

The firm’s former CEO has been arrested and the full extent of the cover-up is to be determined. But for the important work of short sellers, investors across Europe likely would have kept pouring cash into the firm.