District court names penalty range
Wirecard defendant could help himself with a confession
March 27, 2024, 1:29 p.m
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The trial against the former Wirecard board member could end more quickly. After the confession of key witness Bellenhaus, the court is now also negotiating a deal with ex-chief accountant E. This one could get off so lightly.
In the Wirecard trial, the co-defendant, former chief accountant E., is negotiating a deal with the court and the public prosecutor. The Munich regional court has promised him a prison sentence of between two and eight years if he confesses. The presiding judge Markus Födisch said that at this point the defendant could still gain something by confessing. But he shouldn’t wait months before having another conversation with the court and the public prosecutor’s office.
The payment service provider Wirecard went bankrupt in June 2020 because 1.9 billion euros booked in escrow accounts could no longer be found. The former chief accountant has been on trial since December 2022, together with the former CEO Markus Braun and the former Wirecard governor in Dubai, Oliver Bellenhaus, for falsifying balance sheets and gang fraud. Braun denies the allegations. Bellenhaus appears as a key witness and accuses the two co-defendants.
The presiding judge said that E. could help clarify the matter. The chamber has invited witnesses until 2025. There is a great chance of bringing the very expensive process to a quicker conclusion. The legal discussion with E.’s lawyers and the public prosecutor’s office about a possible agreement on March 22nd came about at the suggestion of the Commercial Criminal Chamber.
According to a psychiatric report, E. is guilty. A discontinuation of the proceedings or an acquittal is not in sight. The company’s balance sheets were wrong and the damage was extensive. A suspended sentence is illusory. But the defendant had been in custody for a year and could collect brownie points with a plea agreement.
The fate of Braun and E. are not necessarily connected, Födisch emphasized: an acquittal of one would not necessarily lead to an acquittal of the other. The public prosecutor’s office accuses Braun of forming a gang of fraudsters with accomplices, fabricating sales, falsifying balance sheets and defrauding lenders of 3.1 billion euros. Braun’s defense rejects this and accuses Bellenhaus and his alleged accomplices of embezzling up to two billion euros in real sales. The former sales director Jan Marsalek went into hiding after the bankruptcy and is wanted.