According to the indictment, Braun and his accomplices acted as a gang of fraudsters who cheated banks and lenders by more than three billion euros with the help of invented sales and profits.
(Photo: dpa)
Munich Alfred Dierlamm knows many linguistic tricks to call Oliver Bellenhaus a liar. The key witness in the Wirecard trial deceived, concealed and cheated – throughout his life, even after Wirecard’s collapse.
This is how Dierlamm, the main defender of the ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun, who is accused of fraud, put it this Thursday before the Munich Regional Court when he made a detailed statement about Bellenhaus’ testimony in the course of the trial so far.
According to Dierlamm, Bellenhaus has knitted his own “pattern of lies”, he always surrounds a core of truth with lies and fraud. The key witness lit “smoke candles” in terms of content, and his statements contradicted each other.
Bellenhaus, formerly the governor of Wirecards in Dubai, is the only one of the three accused to admit the allegations made by the Munich public prosecutor. In court, he heavily incriminated both Braun and the former chief accountant Stephan von Erffa, who was also accused.
Bellenhaus had stated that Braun had played a central role in Wirecard’s alleged billion-dollar fraud. Braun acted as the head of a criminal gang, faked income from the so-called third-party business and thus defrauded Wirecard customers and investors of billions of euros. Ultimately, Braun would have been most responsible for the collapse of the payment service provider from Aschheim near Munich.
The indictment is based on the testimony of the key witness
For the Munich public prosecutor’s office, Bellenhaus’ confession is one of the most important pieces of evidence to prove Braun’s alleged investment fraud. In court, Braun’s lawyer Dierlamm intervened here. Bellenhaus’ stories resembled a “farce” and were also a “complimentary statement without any reference to reality”. Bellenhaus wanted to shift his guilt to Braun and not help to find out the truth.
>> Read here: Munich judiciary groans under more than 2200 Wirecard lawsuits
Actually, almost nothing that Bellenhaus told the court is true, says Dierlamm angrily. He says: The former governor of Wirecards in Dubai is not a key witness. In court, Bellenhaus transformed himself into Baron von Bellenhausen.
Wirecard’s third-party partner business did exist, but Bellenhaus misappropriated the revenue generated from it via companies with names such as Pittodrie, Ceridian Canada Payroll and other companies in the Caribbean. In order to cover this up, Bellenhaus destroyed evidence, including “authentic transaction data” from high-risk customers from Wirecard’s third-party business. In addition, Bellenhaus also made “emails relevant to the procedure” disappear and deleted chats.
Over a period of nearly two hours, Dierlamm repeated one word to characterize Bellenhaus: liar. Liar. And again: liars.
With this view of things, Dierlamm was rejected by the Munich public prosecutor’s office. This bases its charges against Braun and von Erffa to a large extent on Bellenhaus’ confession. An absurdity for defender Dierlamm. He believes that the public prosecutor’s office believes the alleged fairy tales without a necessary critical attitude.
>> Read here: Wirecard scandal – Former EY auditors relinquish licenses and evade supervisory procedures
Braun’s defense attorneys also demanded that Bellenhaus’ testimony in court be rejected as evidence. Bellenhaus did not answer any questions from Braun’s defense attorneys during or after his testimony. Thus, Bellenhaus’ testimony would be subject to a “prohibition of use” as evidence because Braun’s lawyers could not question the veracity.
Ex-Wirecard boss will testify from Monday
Braun’s defense presented a 27-page statement in court this Thursday. Stephan von Erffa’s defender Sabine Stetter stayed a little shorter. On more than 20 pages, she also scolded Bellenhaus as a liar who even lied to and betrayed his own wife. Whenever Wirecard suffered from problems, the “fixer” Bellenhaus took care of a solution. Bellenhaus hates Stephan von Erffa and therefore wants to incriminate him. Bellenhaus was not to be trusted as a key witness.
Erffa’s former chief accountant will testify at a later stage of the proceedings. Ex-CEO Braun wants to explain himself next Monday. He wants to testify comprehensively and also answer questions.
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