The former Wirecard CEO sees himself as a victim in the largest fraud case in German economic history.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich The long-standing Wirecard CEO Markus Braun has again rejected the allegations of the prosecution in the criminal proceedings surrounding the multi-billion dollar fraud scandal. At the beginning of the trial on Thursday before the Munich Regional Court, Braun went into particular detail about the last few months before the insolvency of the former Dax group: “I would like to provide an overall picture of the mood as it came from my subjective point of view.”
Wirecard slipped into bankruptcy in June 2020 after the group had to admit that alleged assets in the billions could not be found in trust accounts. Braun has been in custody for more than two and a half years. The public prosecutor accuses him of infidelity, gang fraud, balance sheet falsification and market manipulation.
In addition to Braun, the former chief accountant Stephan von Erffa and Oliver Bellenhaus, once Wirecard governor in Dubai, also have to answer in court. Bellenhaus has a dual role: he is not only the accused, but also the key witness on which the investigators base their allegations. Bellenhaus put a heavy burden on Braun.
Braun had commented on the indictment for the first time since the trial began in December and rejected all allegations. “I had no knowledge of any forgeries or alterations,” he said. “And I didn’t gang up with anyone either.”
On Thursday he first spoke about a controversial ad hoc announcement. Companies must use such notices to inform their shareholders promptly of events that could have a material impact on the share price. The public prosecutor accuses Braun of having sent misleading signals with such an ad hoc announcement.
Wirecard’s former Dubai governor put a heavy burden on his ex-boss Markus Braun.
(Photo: dpa)
Specifically, it is about the KPMG special audit that Wirecard commissioned in October 2019. The doubts about the figures of the Munich payment service provider and the unqualified certificates of the actual auditor EY were so strong at this point that a second opinion was needed.
The KPMG auditors scrutinized the group’s documents for six months. On April 21, they presented the draft of their final report to the Supervisory Board. They complained that KPMG could not find any evidence that Wirecard’s allegedly particularly profitable third-party business actually existed. The third-party partners allegedly did business in which the group did not have its own license.
Wirecard wrote as a central statement in its ad hoc release of April 22: KPMG found no evidence for the public allegations of balance sheet manipulation – and nothing else that would make it necessary to correct the annual financial statements. Prosecutors say this supposedly positive news may have misled investors. Braun himself benefited because he owned seven percent of all shares – many were deposited as collateral for loans.
“My level of knowledge was, the ad hoc is within the playing field”
Braun, on the other hand, denies having deceived the capital markets. “My knowledge was that Adhoc is within the playing field,” said Braun. He emphasized that he had “of course legally coordinated” the notification he had initiated. According to his account, KPMG auditor Sven-Olaf Leitz also saw the ad hoc “at the discretion of the board of directors”.
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When asked by the court, he also referred to an agreement with the then chairman of the supervisory board, Thomas Eichelmann, who did not intervene. In general, the mood between Wirecard and KPMG was tense in the months before the report. A few days before the planned release date, however, both sides met and cleared up some of the ambiguity.
“At the time I was absolutely convinced that the money was there and that the data was identical. I later bought shares myself,” said Braun. The former CEO emphasized that a few weeks before the Wirecard collapse, he had even commissioned a personnel consultant to look for board members for the sales area and organization. He also used emails to present the names of external and internal candidates who had been shortlisted at the time.
“I had a sincere feeling that Marsalek is trying extremely hard to advance the exam”
Braun was also concerned with the future of the fugitive ex-board member Jan Marsalek. Braun said he felt Marsalek was making an effort to meet KPMG’s audit requirements: “I had a genuine feeling that Marsalek was making an extreme effort to move the audit forward.”
At the same time, he also made it clear that Marsalek’s days on the Wirecard board were already numbered at that time. Marsalek was to be given a placeholder role as head of business development as soon as the recruitment consultants found a replacement. Braun: “I also felt sorry for Marsalek because I knew that he had no future. It was clear that his contract would not be extended.”
Marsalek had to make room because he had not initiated any structural adjustments in the group. “And for too long he relied on partners who were not appropriate for the level of a Dax group,” said Braun.
He also saw a half-life for himself personally: “I had no intention of staying in the position of CEO for another ten years.”
In the afternoon, Braun has to face the questions from judge Markus Födisch.
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