Germany indicts Wirecard’s ex-boss Markus Braun for fraud

Braun, together with two others, is accused of market manipulation, embezzlement in addition to gang fraud.

The former CEO of payment company Wirecard, Markus Braun, waits for his testifying at a German parliamentary investigate committee in Berlin
The prosecutors say Braun's indictment runs to 474 pages [File: Fabrizio Bensch/Pool via AP]

German prosecutors have charged Wirecard‘s former chief government Markus Braun and two different high-ranking managers for the colossal business fraud that led to the collapse of the fee firm.

The trio is accused of market manipulation, embezzlement and gang fraud on a business scale, prosecutors stated on Monday, noting that the indictment itself runs to 474 pages.

The German fintech firm, as soon as touted as a shining star of revolutionary start-ups, crashed in June 2020 after admitting that a lacking 1.9 billion euros ($2.1bn) from its steadiness sheets possible didn't exist.

The time it took for prosecutors to file formal expenses underlined the intricate and sophisticated net of fraudulent transactions that investigators travelled internationally to unravel.

Amongst victims of the fraud had been banks that had supplied credit of 1.7 billion euros ($1.8bn) to Wirecard. Bonds value 1.4 billion euros ($1.5bn) had additionally been issued, that are unlikely to be repaid.

‘Industrial vogue’

“All of the accused group members had been performing in an industrial vogue in these six circumstances of fraud, as a result of that's how they secured their very own salaries, together with partially profit-related parts,” prosecutors stated in a press release.

Braun, for example, acquired at the least 5.5 million euros ($6m) in dividends, they stated.

Wirecard’s troubles started in January 2019 with a collection of articles within the Monetary Occasions (FT) newspaper alleging accounting irregularities in its Asian division, headed by chief working officer Jan Marsalek.

However the monetary know-how firm was in a position, at the moment, to repeatedly fend off claims and the FT’s journalists themselves got here below investigation over the studies.

Wirecard's former boss Markus Braun testifies before a German parliamentary committee in Berlin
Braun testifies earlier than a German parliamentary committee in Berlin [File: Fabrizio Bensch/Pool/Reuters]

The large rip-off unravelled in June 2020 when auditors Ernst & Younger stated they had been unable to seek out 1.9 billion euros of money within the firm’s accounts.

The sum, which made up 1 / 4 of the steadiness sheet, was supposedly held to cowl dangers in buying and selling carried out by third events on Wirecard’s behalf and was meant to be sitting in trustee accounts at two Philippine banks.

However the Philippines’ central financial institution stated the money by no means entered its financial system and each Asian banks, BDO and BPI, denied having a relationship with Wirecard.

Whereas key figures within the firm have since been arrested, together with Braun, former COO Marsalek, who is needed by German prosecutors, stays at giant.

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