Markus Braun headed Wirecard for almost two decades and cultivated the image of a visionary. Now a criminal court has to clarify whether he acted extremely naively or criminally.
(Photo: Reuters)
Dusseldorf The boss can’t really remember the day of the fright. It was June 18, 2020 when Wirecard had to admit that an alleged billion-dollar fortune did not exist in the Philippines. The hours when the Wirecard price fell by 70 percent are burned into the memory of many shareholders. Not so Markus Braun, the former Wirecard boss.
He was tired at the time, he later told the public prosecutor. He didn’t sleep a wink for 48 hours. He largely forgot what happened after that summer day in 2020.
The memory will be refreshed from Thursday. Markus Braun, once a billionaire and CEO of Germany’s formerly most valuable financial group, comes to the dock in Munich.
Braun has been in custody for almost two and a half years – far longer than any other business leader before him. The public prosecutor accuses Braun of infidelity, balance sheet falsification, market manipulation and commercial gang fraud.
Read on now
Get access to this and every other article in the
Web and in our app free of charge for 4 weeks.
Continue
Read on now
Get access to this and every other article in the
Web and in our app free of charge for 4 weeks.
Continue