In the Wirecard trial, the prosecutor’s key witness accused former CEO Markus Braun as a key figure in years of billions in fraud. “Wirecard was a cancerous growth,” said co-defendant manager Oliver Bellenhaus today before the Munich Regional Court. “There was a system of organized fraud.”
Braun was an “absolute CEO” (Chief Executive Officer). “If he said something, that’s how it was done.” Braun and Bellenhaus have been in custody for two and a half years, the third accused is the former Wirecard chief accountant.
The public prosecutor accuses the three defendants and other suspects of forming a criminal gang of fraudsters and cheating the lenders of the DAX group, which collapsed in 2020, out of 3.1 billion euros with invented profits. Brown denies the allegations.
“Scared About My Own Life”
“He sees himself as a victim, and that’s a well-known pattern,” Bellenhaus said of his former boss. Until the collapse of the payment service provider in June 2020, Braun had always rejected years of doubt regarding the balance sheets in bulk. “Blind loyalty” to Braun and the former sales director Jan Marsalek, who has been on the run for two and a half years, made him break the law and put him in prison, Bellenhaus said.
On the third day of the trial, the 49-year-old was the first of the three accused to testify on the matter, and he is also the only one to admit the allegations. “I’m shocked regarding my own life,” said the key witness – and emphasized how much he regretted the immense damage.