Charges against ex-Wirecard boss: How much did Markus Braun know?

In the Wirecard scandal, the public prosecutor’s office brought charges against former CEO Braun and two other former top managers. The defense vehemently disagrees with the prosecution.

It is not often that an investigating authority uses a press release about the indictment that has just been filed for a detailed appraisal of its own work: In its seven-page statement, the Munich I public prosecutor’s office points out right at the beginning that an extremely complex matter had to be clarified. “Meticulous detailed work” at home and abroad was carried out by a specially set up special commission, “450 interrogations were carried out”, according to the investigating authority.

700 volumes of files

“To give you an idea, the files contain more than 700 volumes,” said the spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office, Anne Leiding, later in a brief statement. Her central message: The former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun will probably have to answer in a lawsuit.

However, the 4th Criminal Chamber of the Munich I District Court has to decide on this. It received the charges filed last Thursday. This is directed against Braun and two other leading managers of the insolvent payment service provider: against the former chief accountant Stephan von E. and against Oliver B., the deputy of Wirecard in Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

Several years imprisonment threaten

The allegations against Braun, B. and von E. weigh heavily: “Market manipulation and breach of trust – committed commercially or gang-like.” If there is a trial, the accused face several years in prison. Specifically, the investigators accuse them of being instrumental in the fact that the Aschheim payment service provider presented false balance sheets for the years 2015 to 2018.

Wirecard had, among other things, booked the proceeds from transactions with foreign third-party partners “on escrow accounts in Singapore and included them in the balance sheet,” the public prosecutor continued. According to the authorities, however, these sales never existed.

Significantly embellished numbers

“By publishing the significantly embellished figures, those involved wanted to give investors the impression that Wirecard AG was a commercially successful and solvent company,” the public prosecutor said.

Against this background, the investigators also justify their accusation of commercial gang fraud. For example, the former DAX group had loans and bonds worth 3.1 billion euros granted by banks and backed them up with the current business figures – “which, as all the accused knew, were grossly wrong”.

Braun defense rejects allegations

Markus Braun’s defense “completely” rejects these allegations. The former Wirecard CEO “was never part of a gang that embezzled millions of dollars behind his back,” said Braun spokesman Dirk Metz in a written statement. He only found out about the “existence of this shadow structure (…) from the files”.

For many weeks now, Braun has been letting its defense attorneys spread the word that Wirecard has generated high sales with foreign third-party partners for years. Between 2016 and 2020 alone, “sales of almost one billion euros” were received in their domestic accounts. The fact that the public prosecutor’s office is still sticking to the opposite thesis makes the Braun defense “stunned”. She accuses the investigators of “omissions and deficits in clarifying the facts”.

The former DAX group Wirecard filed for bankruptcy on June 25, 2020 after 1.9 billion euros, which were said to be in a Philippine trust account of the company, could no longer be found. Many observers and company experts are convinced that Jan Marsalek is primarily responsible for this. The former Wirecard board went into hiding a few days before the Wirecard bankruptcy and has been on the run ever since. He is wanted worldwide.

Possible start of trial in autumn

The public prosecutor emphasized that their investigations have not yet been completed despite the indictment that has now been submitted. Since at least Markus Braun was due for another regular detention review, the authorities were under pressure to submit the charges quickly. According to prosecutors, a trial against Braun could begin in the fall. “That’s probably a good prognosis, but I don’t want to prejudge the court,” said spokeswoman Leiding.