Kristo Kaarmann, CEO and co-founder of Wise.
Eoin Noonan | Sports file | Getty Images
LONDON — Kristo Käärmann, the billionaire CEO of a money transfer company Sensiblewas fined £350,000 ($454,000) by financial regulators in Britain for failing to report a problem with his tax returns.
Käärmann, who co-founded Wise with fellow entrepreneur Taavet Hinrikus in 2011, was ordered on Monday by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to pay the significant fine for breaching the watchdog’s conduct rule for senior managers.
The FCA said Käärmann had failed to notify the regulator that he had not paid capital gains tax when he cashed in shares worth £10 million in 2017.
The watchdog found it was in breach of Senior Management Conduct Rule 4, which states: “You must appropriately disclose any information of which the FCA would reasonably expect to be notified.”
It comes after the Wise boss was fined £365,651 in 2021 by the UK tax collection agency Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for being late in filing his tax returns during the 2017/2018 tax year.
Käärmann’s name was added to HMRC’s public list of defaulters. His tax debt for that year was £720,495, according to HMRC. He has a net worth of $1.8 billion, according to Forbes.
‘High standards’ expected
The FCA said on Monday that the tax issues between February 2021 and September 2021 were relevant to its assessment of Käärmann’s suitability and propriety as a senior director of a financial services company.
Käärmann failed to consider the significance of the issues and notified the FCA, despite knowing about them for more than seven months, the regulator added.
“We, and the public, expect high standards from leaders of financial companies, including candor and openness,” Therese Chambers, joint executive director of enforcement and oversight, said in a statement Monday.
“It should have been clear to Mr Käärmann that he had to tell us about these issues, which were highly relevant to our assessment of his fitness and decency.”
Käärmann said in a statement Monday that he “remains focused on delivering on the mission for Wise and realizing our long-term vision.” “After several years and full cooperation with the FCA, we have completed this process,” he said.
“We continue to build a product and a company that will serve our customers and owners for decades to come,” Käärmann added.
Wise’s chairman, David Wells, said the company’s board of directors “continues to take Wise’s legal obligations very seriously.”
Wise’s board deemed Käärmann “fit and proper” to continue in his role at the company following an internal investigation in 2021.
As a result of that review, Käärmann was required by the board to take “remedial measures” to ensure his personal tax affairs were properly managed.
Less serious than feared
The value of the FCA’s fine is significantly less than the potential maximum fine he faced.
Käärmann could have been fined as much as £500,000 for his tax errors, but was eligible for a 30% discount for agreeing to fix the problems.
News of the fine comes after Wise earlier this month reported a 17% increase in ‘underlying income’, which consists of cross-border revenue, card and other revenue, and interest income.
Wise reiterated its target to achieve an underlying profit before tax margin of 13% to 16% over the medium term through investments in prices, adding that this meant it did not make “further material investments in prices” had to do. half of the year.
In a note Monday, analysts at British investment bank Peel Hunt raised their expectations for Wise’s annual pre-tax profit by 15%. They have a price target of € 1,000 and a buy recommendation for the share.
“While Wise has made no changes to the guidance set in June 2024, we expect significant upside in the near term,” Peel Hunt analysts Gautam Pillai and Barun Singh wrote in the note.
Käärmann and Hinrikus, both Estonian tech entrepreneurs who emigrated to Britain, took Wise from a scrappy start-up to a payments disruptor now worth £7.4 billion.
They founded Wise to provide a low-cost alternative to banks that charge hidden fees for transferring money across borders.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct the value of Käärmann’s fine in U.S. dollars.