Posted on: December 13, 2022, 02:21h.
Final up to date on: December 13, 2022, 03:29h.
Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun’s lawyer mentioned Monday it’s an “absurd” notion that his shopper was a part of a “gang” that concocted a large fraud. It was alleged they conned buyers within the now-insolvent fintech large.
Markus Braun, pictured in a Munich courtroom on the primary day of his trial final Thursday. His lawyer says German prosecutors have gotten the unsuitable man. (Picture: Getty)
Braun is on trial in Munich with two different former Wirecard execs, Oliver Bellenhaus and Stephan von Erffa, for prices that embody market manipulation and “gang-related fraud.”
Braun’s former firm grew from being a fee processor for the net playing and porn industries to the main gentle in German fintech, with a market cap of €22 billion ($25 billion) in 2018.
Then it imploded.
$2B Lacking
In June 2020, auditor Ernst & Younger introduced it couldn’t affirm the existence of €1.9 billion (US$2 billion) in money balances talked about in Wirecards’ accounts. This cash was imagined to be sitting in trustee accounts at two Philippine banks, however the banks denied having a relationship with Wirecard.
Days later, Wirecard admitted the cash was “lacking” and sure “by no means existed” within the first place. German prosecutors referred to as it a “large prison act” to artificially inflate the worth of the corporate to defraud buyers and lenders.
They usually argue Braun, as CEO, knew about all the pieces that went on within the firm.
By no means Offered Shares
Braun’s lawyer, Alfred Dierlamm, famous Monday his shopper had by no means offered his Wirecard shares, which steered he hadn’t tried to revenue personally from the inflated share worth and was oblivious to any impending disaster.
Braun was Wirecard’s largest shareholder and truly elevated his holding previous to the corporate’s collapse.
Dierlamm additionally mentioned Braun had taken the initiative to herald exterior auditors to research the corporate’s funds.
It’s a fully absurd and misguided notion {that a} gang chief would act like this,” Dierlamm mentioned, as translated by the Related Press.
Dierlamm claimed prosecutors have been below stress to discover a perpetrator after the disappearance of Wirecard COO and fugitive Jan Marsalek. As Wirecard got here crashing down, Marsalek flew to Belarus. He’s believed to be hiding out in Moscow below the supervision of the GRU, Russia’s army intelligence, with which he has connections.
Cash ‘Siphoned Off’
Dierlamm additionally pointed the finger at Bellenhaus, who has admitted accountability and is the prosecution’s key witness. Dierlamm mentioned Bellenhaus was “not a reputable witness” and accused him of being the primary perpetrator of the fraud with Marsalek.
The corporate’s outsourced operations in Asia did certainly exist, however the cash was siphoned off into shell firms with out Braun’s data by Bellenhaus and Marsalek, Dierlamm argued.
The lawyer additionally filed a movement to droop the prison trial, claiming prosecutors had didn’t correctly examine the case and had dumped “countless paperwork” on the protection on a weekly foundation, permitting inadequate time to review all of them.
