In the Wirecard trial in Munich, the prosecutor’s key witness, the former manager Oliver Bellenhaus, confirmed the central allegation of the prosecution and heavily incriminated his former board colleagues: The alleged billions in sales of the payment processor with “third-party partners” in the Middle East and Asia were therefore fictitious.
Bellenhaus, a former representative of Wirecard in Dubai, described yesterday, Wednesday, the falsification of business contracts and sales. “Of course we came up with that,” he said of the billions in escrow accounts in Southeast Asia.
Managers have always forged books to deceive auditors. That often happened in a hurry, said Bellenhaus. “The accountant needed something, and then panic ensued. Then we tried to tinker something.”
“Is the examiner happy?”
The decisive question was: “Is the auditor happy?” CEO Markus Braun, who comes from Vienna, never asked when he signed contracts, said Bellenhaus. Braun, like Bellenhaus and Stephan von Erffa, former head of the group’s balance sheet, is accused. The trio are accused of accounting fraud, market manipulation, infidelity and commercial gang fraud. Unlike Bellenhaus, Braun’s and von Erffas’ lawyers have rejected the allegations. Braun is due to testify in court for the first time next Thursday.
Wirecard collapsed in 2020 when it became known that 1.9 billion euros were missing from the till. The bankruptcy is one of the biggest financial scandals in German post-war history.
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