In the process of the Wirecard scandal, the defender of the accused ex-manager Braun accuses the key witness Bellenhaus of having been the main perpetrator himself. His client would have been prejudiced, but was himself a victim. He calls for the process to be adjourned so that the mountains of files can be examined.
The defense attorney for the accused ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun is trying to shake the credibility of the prosecutor’s key witness. Attorney Alfred Dierlamm attacked the former governor of Wirecard in Dubai, Oliver Bellenhaus, in front of the Munich I District Court. His statements to the public prosecutor’s office are not credible and implausible.
“Bellenhaus is not a key witness,” said Dierlamm. “Bellenhaus is the main perpetrator of a gang” whose sole aim was to divert and embezzle funds from the company. Braun has been prejudged since Wirecard’s bankruptcy in June 2020 like no other of his clients in 30 years, said the Wiesbaden lawyer. “The prejudice is unprecedented and formative for this process.” The Higher Regional Court, which was responsible for Braun’s pre-trial detention, and the Wirecard investigative committee of the Bundestag were also taken in by Bellenhaus’s false testimony.
According to the indictment, the Munich public prosecutor’s office believes Braun to be the head of a criminal gang that has falsified the balance sheets of the former stock market darling for years and invented bogus transactions worth billions to cover up losses. The 53-year-old Austrian, on the other hand, sees himself as a victim of managers around the fugitive former CEO Jan Marsalek, who would have set aside billions. Defender Dierlamm accused the investigators of bias and serious investigation errors. After Marsalek’s escape, the public prosecutor’s office was under pressure to succeed. It was clear: “Markus Braun had to be behind bars.” The ex-CEO, who has been celebrated as a visionary for years, has been in custody for around two and a half years.
Dierlamm announced a motion to stay the fraud trial against his client, Bellenhaus, and Wirecard’s former chief accountant, Stephan von Erffa. He needed more time to examine “the files that were poured on our desks”. Braun is therefore currently unable to testify.
The ex-CEO insists that Wirecard’s lucrative business with third-party partners in Asia – contrary to what Bellenhaus claims – actually existed after 2015. This is also evident from the bank statements of the third-party partners in Germany, which were only checked later by the public prosecutor’s office. It documents deposits of one billion euros between 2016 and 2020. “Absolutely zero euros, as Mr. Bellenhaus lied to the public prosecutor.” 750 million euros flowed to four companies controlled by Bellenhaus alone.
Dierlamm described the fact that Braun was the leader of a gang as “downright absurd and far-fetched notion”. After all, he held on to his Wirecard shares “fully convinced of the value of his portfolio”. He still charged his Wirecard share with a real estate loan – for “the property where his family lives”. Braun himself arranged for the auditing company KPMG to carry out a forensic investigation into the events at Wirecard.
