What did the management know ?: Investigators are targeting Wirecard Bank

After the machinations at Wirecard itself, the investigators are now increasingly turning to the Wirecard bank. It's still run by managers who may have made common cause with the fraudsters at the top.

According to a newspaper report, the financial supervisory authority (Bafin) is now also interested in the management staff of Wirecard Bank AG. The company of the insolvent Wirecard group is still being run by burdened managers who had previously played a leading role in building the parent company, the scandalous Wirecard, writes the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung". In doing so, they worked closely with the management duo Markus Braun and Jan Marsalek.

Braun is now in custody, Marsalek is on the run, the entire Wirecard board has been dismissed. In the Wirecard Bank, however, the supervisory boards ruled unchanged, who had previously watched the goings-on at the top of the group for years, writes the "FAS". The newspaper named, for example, Stefan Klestil, son of the former Austrian President Thomas Klestil, and Wulf Matthias, who had been Braun's confidante as the head of the Wirecard supervisory board for years.

In the meantime, the Bafin is already examining whether the managers are technically and characteristically suitable for controlling a credit institution, according to the report. On this basis, the Bafin could recall the supervisory boards of Wirecard Bank.

Wirecard-Bank not insolvent

The "FAS" emphasizes in its report that the Bafin has so far always emphasized that it has not been able to uncover the scandal at the financial service provider earlier, since it was only responsible for the Wirecard Bank, but not for the entire group. Unlike the parent company, the bank, as a legally independent entity with a formal banking license, is not insolvent.

The parent company Wirecard filed for bankruptcy at the end of June. Previously, the company had to admit that the balance sheet of 1.9 billion euros, which was supposed to be in Asian bank accounts, could not be found. The Munich I public prosecutor's office is investigating the case. It is based on commercial gang fraud.

. (tagsToTranslate) Economy (t) Wirecard (t) Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (t) affairs and scandals