Fraudulent cases in the financial sector are becoming a regular occurrence: the trial of the former boss of the German group Wirecard is taking place this week, while the trial of the London-based management company H2O (under French law) is expected to start in March. The hearing of the founder of the pharmaceutical company Theranos concluded last month with the conviction of the "future Steve Jobs", Elizabeth Holmes to 11 years in prison. Sam Bankman-Fried, former head of FTX, was arrested the day before yesterday at his $40 million villa in the Bahamas. Finally, the Credit Suisse cases, which have become frequent, no longer even surprise.

Imagine seeing a company that you believed in or trusted to do your transactions, stripping you of your means. Not easy. Sometimes it seems that these scandals follow the rule: the bigger the better. Wirecard was worth 17 billion euros at one point, as much as Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank. The payment card company was even listed on the DAX30. Theranos, founded in 2003 by a 19-year-old, exaggerated and lied about the blood tests it was trying to develop. It was worth $9 billion in 2014. As for the H2O fund, formerly a subsidiary of Natixis, it was invested largely in illiquid, unlisted assets linked to controversial German businessman Lars Windhorst.

So as the holiday season approaches, we think of all those holders who have been ruined and idled. The concern is that these cases are becoming recurrent. The control bodies have a primordial role to play to counter these scandals before they become uncontrollable. In the meantime, it would be hard to guess what another scandal will occur in 2023.