Markus Braun threatens process
Prosecutors accuse ex-Wirecard boss
03/13/2022, 5:25 p.m
The long-standing Wirecard boss Markus Braun has been in custody for more than a year and a half. According to a media report, the Munich public prosecutor’s office is only now filing charges against him. The manager has so far always rejected the allegations against him.
According to the “Handelsblatt”, the Munich public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against the long-standing Wirecard boss Markus Braun. On 480 pages, the investigators accused him of gang fraud, misappropriation of assets from the former Dax group, balance sheet falsification and market manipulation, the newspaper reported, citing informed circles. The former deputy of the group in Dubai, Oliver Bellenhaus, as well as the former chief accountant and deputy chief financial officer Stephan von Erffa should sit with Braun in the dock.
The Munich public prosecutor initially did not want to confirm the report. The indictment was expected by mid-March. Braun’s spokesman said: “We will not comment on this today.” Braun had always rejected the allegations against him. Lawyers for Bellenhaus and von Erffa could not initially be reached for comments.
The payment service provider from Aschheim near Munich went bankrupt in June 2020 after the discovery of a balance sheet hole worth 1.9 billion euros. Wirecard insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe believes it has been proven that the money never existed and that the supposedly highly profitable company had actually been making losses for years. The EY auditors, who had audited the Wirecard balance sheets for years, and the financial regulator BaFin are also criticized for this reason.
Braun and Bellenhaus have been in custody since July 2020 – more than a year and a half – von Erffa was released in the summer of 2021 against conditions. Former board member Jan Marsalek, whom many believe to be the mastermind, has been on the run since the bankruptcy. He was internally responsible for the Asian business, which is at the center of the affair.
According to earlier information, Braun, who was also a major shareholder in Wirecard, sees himself as a victim of the shadow structures that Marsalek built. Braun thinks it is at least possible that the missing 1.9 billion actually existed, but Marsalek disappeared with the money. Bellenhaus made himself available to the judiciary as a key witness shortly after the bankruptcy.
Von Erffa had apologized to the Bundestag’s parliamentary investigative committee for the financial scandal: “It was unimaginable for me that something like this could happen.” He did not want to evade his joint responsibility and was perhaps too gullible.