Billion fraud: Wirecard process: Black Day for Markus Braun

In the Munich Wirecard trial, the insolvency administrator broke the line of defense of the former CEO Markus Braun. The 1.9 billion euros in trust accounts in Southeast Asia in the Wirecard balance sheet did not exist, lawyer Michael Jaffé said as a witness to the Munich II District Court, he has been looking for the missing billion for five years.

Insolvency administrator: The majority of the shops did not exist

The insolvency administrator also expressly contradicted Braun’s argument that the true perpetrators around the dipped former sales board member Jan Marsalek had redirected billion dollars of the group to a network of shadow companies and continued to do so on his own account: Wirecard did not exist. “It is excluded that something would have been turned out,” said Jaffé. Braun followed the lawyer’s statements with a petrified expression.

The ex-CEO has been in custody for almost five years. The public prosecutor accuses Braun and his two co -accused gang fraud, the investigators have estimated the damage at three billion euros. The Austrian manager rejects the allegations and sees himself as a victim of Marsalek and his accomplice.

The former DAX group was a payment service provider for credit card statements. The majority of the profits posted in the balance sheets came from so -called third -party businesses in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.

Of 1.9 billion euros “nothing to see”

The third partners were companies that are said to have handled credit card payments in countries in the Wirecard order in which the German group itself had no license. And there were income from this third party business that were allegedly booked on the trust accounts, initially in Singapore, shortly before the bankruptcy in the Philippines. Jaffé put the sum at 1.9 billion euros.

In the Philippines, the money had never arrived, the lawyer reported on his investigations – and in Singapore “nothing to see from the 1.9 billion euros”.

In the course of the trial, Braun and his defenders have repeatedly accused Marsalek and the co-accused crown witnesses Oliver Bellenhaus that they have distributed third-party businesses from the group and continued to do it on their own account. Jaffé also vehemently contradicted this: “Not 1.9 billion was stolen because they were not available 1.9 billion.”

Research did not provide any information

According to Jaffé, Jaffé intensively researched the companies and money flows named by Braun’s defenders, but found no evidence that would support their representation. “We cannot confirm this based on what we have checked.” However, Jaffé admitted that several of the companies mentioned by the defenders did not respond to inquiries.

Real business does not disappear without a trace

But Jaffé concluded that there could ever have been a third party business: “You cannot do a business of this size without a trace,” said the insolvency administrator. According to the lawyer, there were no traces. The bankruptcy would have had to trigger a storm of protest from customers and business partners who could no longer handle payments or were afraid for their money. “We have not received a call (…), no one who would have insulted or cursed us.”

Real money was burned

Instead, the group, which was once considered as a German technology miracle, lived in the years before the bankruptcy of bank loans, according to analysis of the insolvency administrator. “A company with a worldwide structure and enormous cash burn without any liquidity.” The total amount of money burning over the years, Jaffé quantified at 1.1 billion euros.

The process has been running since December 2022, the judges have made it clear that they would like to speak a judgment this year. So far, however, the taking of evidence has not been completed, appointments for pleading and judgment have not yet been set.