Former Wirecard chief govt charged with fraud

Wirecard’s former chief govt Markus Braun has been formally charged by Munich public prosecutors with fraud, breach of belief and accounting manipulation after a 21-month prison investigation into the collapse of the German funds group.

Wirecard was hailed as one in all Germany’s expertise success tales and at its peak in 2018 value €24bn. It crashed into insolvency in June 2020 shortly after admitting that half of its operations and €1.9bn in company money didn’t exist. Braun, who has been in police custody since July 2020, denies any wrongdoing and claims he’s a sufferer of the fraud, too.

If discovered responsible on all expenses, he faces as much as 15 years in jail.

Two different former senior Wirecard managers have additionally been charged, the prosecutors stated on Monday in an announcement. One is the group’s former deputy finance director and head of accounting Stephan von Erffa. The opposite is a former Dubai-based supervisor answerable for a Wirecard subsidiary, who has turned chief witness and can’t be named for authorized causes. The prison investigation into different suspects continues.

Wirecard’s second-in-command Jan Marsalek, who’s seen as one of many fraud’s central figures, has been on the run since June 2020 and can’t be charged in absence below German regulation. Prosecutors assume that Marsalek, who was final traced within the Belarusian capital of Minsk, is most probably hiding in Russia, in line with folks conversant in their ideas.

The date for the trial at Munich regional courtroom has not but been mounted, however folks conversant in the matter informed the Monetary Occasions it was more likely to begin in late summer time. The trial is predicted to final for months if not years. The cost sheet, which is 474 pages lengthy, has been compiled after greater than 430 interviews with witnesses and suspects.

Attorneys for von Erffa, Marsalek and the Dubai-based ex-manager in addition to a spokesperson for Braun didn’t instantly reply to the Monetary Occasions’ requests for remark.