Image: APA/dpa (Peter Kneffel)
In the Munich Wirecard trial, the dispute between the prosecution’s key witness and former CEO Markus Braun has reached its climax. Manager Oliver Bellenhaus, who worked for Wirecard in Dubai until the scandal group collapsed in 2020, defended himself on Monday against the allegations made by Braun’s defenders and made serious allegations of his own.
The question arises as to whether Dr. Braun spent the last 20 years deaf and blind in Wirecard,” Bellenhaus said on the 74th day of the trial. According to the defense of Braun, who is from Austria, the sales director and also Austrian Jan Marsalek, who has been in hiding since 2020, Bellenhaus and accomplices are said to have a shadowy network of companies embezzled the two billion euros that the company was actually entitled to. Braun therefore knew nothing about the activities of this criminal gang in the company.
“War for public opinion”
Bellenhaus, for his part, called this representation “absurd.” “There is no evidence of this,” said the manager, who, like Braun, has been in custody for over three years. “Above all, a war is being waged here over public opinion.” In his statement, Bellenhaus accused Braun’s defense attorneys of having often miscalculated. “What would be the motive for setting up such a shadow structure and keeping it running for over a decade,” said the key witness.
Bellenhaus is the only one of the three defendants to confess. According to the indictment, both Braun and Bellenhaus were members of the Wirecard criminal gang. They are said to have falsified Wirecard’s balance sheets since 2015 and damaged lending banks by 3.1 billion euros. However, Braun’s defense attorneys deny Bellenhaus any credibility: “A creative series of smokescreens,” said lawyer Alfred Dierlamm after Bellenhaus’ statements. “We will comment on this in detail.” The court’s decision on the Braun defense attorney’s requests for evidence is still pending.
- Read here: The letter from the fugitive Jan Marsalek sparked controversy in the trial
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