Investors know him with a dark turtleneck, and Markus Braun appears in court at the start of the trial with a dark turtleneck. The defenders of the accused former Wirecard boss plead ignorance and attack the main prosecution witness.
It is one of the biggest German economic scandals: since Thursday, the bankruptcy of the billions of the former Dax group Wirecard has been criminally processed before the Munich I Regional Court. Former CEO Markus Braun is on trial with two former managers – but it should take at least a year for a verdict to be reached. The first day of the trial revolved almost entirely around the reading of the extensive indictment, which lasted about five hours without a break. In addition, the court shared content from the process preparation.
Braun has been in custody since July 2020, he was brought directly from his cell to the courtroom in the Munich-Stadelheim correctional facility. Braun, who appeared in a dark turtleneck sweater as at previous Wirecard shareholder meetings, provided information about himself at the beginning of the process. According to the court and his defense attorneys, he wants to comment on the content of the process and also answer questions.
His defense attorneys had previously denied the allegations against Braun. He was not involved in the machinations, which served exclusively to misappropriate funds from Wirecard AG, and had no knowledge of them, they explained shortly before the start of the trial. Braun’s defense wants to argue accordingly in the proceedings starting next week.
The public prosecutor accuses the 53-year-old from Vienna of commercial gang fraud, infidelity, market manipulation and incorrect representation. Up to ten years in prison for the fraud allegations alone. Braun, together with the rest of the Wirecard boardroom, is said to have booked bogus transactions in the billions over the years and thus swindled large loans. The company made it into the German stock index with its supposedly successful business idea, although the deals actually only produced losses.
According to the public prosecutor, Braun and a number of Wirecard executives have known since the end of 2015 at the latest that their actual business as a payment service provider was only making losses. However, they are said to have secured billions in loans through bogus transactions. 1.9 billion euros have disappeared – it is unclear whether the money ever existed or whether the amounts were invented. In addition to Braun, the former Wirecard chief accountant Stephan Freiherr von E. and the former head of a Wirecard company in Dubai, Oliver B., are accused. Former Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek is on the run. While von E. is free again, B., like Braun, remains in custody.
B. is considered a key witness for the prosecution. He traveled to Germany from Dubai after the Wirecard scandal became known and unpacked extensively. According to his defense attorney, Florian Eder, B. expects a “very, very significant reduction in his sentence” for his role as key witness. As B.’s defense attorney said, in the trial, which was initially scheduled to last 100 days, attacks by Braun’s defense on the credibility of his client are to be expected. But B.’s statements are correct. In addition to the memory of direct conversations with Braun, there is also incriminating material that will be discussed in the taking of evidence. In fact, Braun’s defense attorneys attacked B. on the first day of the hearing. They asked the court to officially record a statement by a public prosecutor that the prosecution did not want to be blackmailed by B. A corresponding statement is said to have been made in a preliminary talk.
According to the public prosecutor, the main motive of the accused was to enrich themselves: Braun not only posted a salary in the millions, as a Wirecard shareholder he also received dividends of 5.5 million euros from 2015 to 2018. As a result of the Wirecard bankruptcy, many thousands of shareholders lost their fixed assets in the group. Possible claims for damages must be clarified separately in civil lawsuits – but most recently the Munich I Regional Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a fund company for 243 million euros against the insolvency administrator, and investors are in danger of going away empty-handed.
