Wirecard loans of over 140 million euros are said to have leaked here. The insolvency administrator is therefore suing the management board and two supervisory boards.
(Photo: imago images / NurPhoto)
Dusseldorf Wirecard’s insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé has sued the former board members and two former supervisory board members for possible breaches of duty when granting three-digit million loans. The Regional Court of Munich I confirmed this to the Handelsblatt on Thursday. Specifically, it is about loans totaling 140 million euros.
The focus is particularly on a loan of 100 million euros, which the then Dax group granted the Singapore company Ocap in March 2020 – just a few months before the group collapsed.
Wirecard slipped into bankruptcy in June 2020 after the Aschheim group had to admit billions in billions. Jaffé assumes that the money that went to Ocap was embezzled. The public prosecutor’s office is investigating gang fraud, breach of trust and market manipulation, including against Wirecard’s former CEO Markus Braun, who is currently in custody.
The insolvency administrator’s lawsuit was received by the court shortly before Christmas and is pending before the 5th Civil Chamber under file number 5 HK O 17452/21. It is directed against Braun, Jan Marsalek, who has been on the run for more than a year and a half, and the two former board members Susanne Steidl and Alexander von Knoop. In addition, the former supervisory board members Wulf Matthias and Stefan Klestil are sued.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
Insolvency administrator Jaffé has also obtained arrest orders against Braun (140 million euros) and its MB holding company (35 million euros). It is unclear how much money he can still secure in this way. Insolvency administrator Jaffé declined to comment on the lawsuit on Thursday.
Ex-CEO Braun rejects claims
Braun’s spokesman said his client learned of the lawsuit earlier this year. “Dr. Braun rejects the asserted claims in full and will defend himself against the lawsuit. ”The statement of claim assumes a situation that is incorrect and refuted by facts, the spokesman said. “The legal justification does not work in the beginning.”
Marsalek’s lawyer stated that he was not aware of the lawsuit and that “our client did not want to comment on it.” A spokesman for Klestil said that his client was not yet familiar with the application, but that the move was “expected” may be. Jaffé is about “getting the money from the D&O insurance.”
Klestil is “a grateful goal, because he is not blamed”. This does not apply to many other former Wirecard managers. “And in the case of intentional crimes, the insurance does not pay,” said the spokesman. The lawyers of the other managers initially did not respond to the short-term Handelsblatt request.
Ocap wasn’t just any recipient. The company from Singapore dealt with the wholesale of oil products and services for ships until 2018. Then Carlos H. took over the company, a former employee of the Asia board member Jan Marsalek. Suddenly, Ocap turned to bridging finance for online retailers – and received a loan of 100 million euros from Wirecard for the first time in November 2018.
This loan was already hotly debated at Wirecard and Ocap subsequently did not service it. Nevertheless, the company from Singapore received another 100 million euros at the end of March 2020. In addition to the in-house experts, a lawyer from an external law firm also warned against “very extensive indemnifications in favor of the issuer”.
Dispute over the liquidator
In mid-December 2020, Ocap filed an application to initiate liquidation proceedings under Singapore law and appointed a liquidator. However, Jaffé did not trust this and in turn brought in a local law firm. With their help he had his own liquidator chosen.
However, the Ocap shareholder and the original liquidator opposed each other. Jaffé was only able to prevail in a court in Singapore in March 2021. His liquidator could start work. “The findings from this have already found their way into other areas of work,” noted the insolvency administrator in his latest status report from the end of November.
The short episode shows how difficult it is for the insolvency administrator Jaffé to assert the interests of creditors in third countries. The loans to Ocap “played a central role in relation to the companies through which funds from the Wirecard Group flowed,” as Jaffé noted in his report. In total, the Singapore company owes the Wirecard companies 230 million euros.
The Handelsblatt has documents for the granting of loans. They show that the businessman Henry O’Sullivan is one of the people behind Ocap. The Briton is a close confidante of Marsalek, board member for Asia. He is currently on trial in Singapore for alleged forgery of documents in connection with Wirecard.
Literally, the documents say that loans to the company were given for a “strategic reason”. Business partners with whom Wirecard had already worked closely in other areas were decisive. “This was also the case in the present case in the person of Henry O’Sullivan.”
More: “I will instruct you directly” – How Markus Braun had 100 million euros sent to Singapore