Accounting giant EY has come under pressure in the wake of the Wirecard scandal and insolvency filing, as a growing number of lawsuits allege that EY's practices had a role in the company's fraudulent practices and subsequent collapse.

TILP Rechtsanwälte, the German law firm that handled a large number of consumer lawsuits against Volkswagen in the Dieselgate scandal, has included EY in a consumer action, expanding a suit it filed in May, according to a statement released by the firm. Berlin firm Schirp & Partner also said it has filed a suit against EY, as has the German investor's protection association SdK.

EY Germany could not immediately be reached for comment.

The lawsuits come amid a raft of questions about EY's role in the company's bankruptcy. While earlier this month EY sounded the alarm that $2 billion of Wirecard's cash could not be found, the firm signed off on the company's financials for a number of years. The auditor failed to demand information from a Singapore bank where the German company said it held $1 billion in cash, according to the Financial Times.

TILP's lawsuit against EY was filed in a Munich regional court in accordance with the German Capital Markets Model Case Act (KapMug), which established a legal mechanism in Germany by which courts manage collective actions. It alleges intentional balance sheet falsification. It also names as defendants several Wirecard executives, including former CEO Markus Braun, former COO Jan Marsalek and acting CFO Alexander von Knoop.

Roughly 30,000 parties have registered with TILP, the law firm said. Several hundred parties are ready to proceed with a suit, Marc Schiefer, head of TILP's litigation arm, said in an interview last week. Total damages could amount to $2 billion euros, he said. At its highest valuation, Wirecard was worth over $20 billion euros.

Meanwhile, Germany said it has canceled its contract with the country's accounting watchdog, the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel (FREP), effective Dec. 31, 2021. It is not yet clear how FREP's role will be redistributed.

This is not the first time this year that EY's audits have come under scrutiny. It was the auditor for Nasdaq-listed Luckin Coffee, the Chinese company that admitted to fabricating $310 million in revenue in 2019. And in the U.K., it is being investigated by regulators over its audit of hospital administrator NMC Health, which collapsed in April.