According to the indictment, some people are said to have falsified Wirecard’s balance sheets since 2015 and damaged lending banks by 3.1 billion euros.
(Photo: Reuters)
Munich In the Wirecard process, the short-term successor to the accused ex-CEO Markus Braun underpinned the doubts about the existence of the billions that had been missing for three years. He was immediately suspicious of the bank confirmations of trust assets of 1.9 billion euros, US manager James Freis reported on Wednesday before the Munich I District Court.
The Wirecard Supervisory Board appointed Freis to the Management Board in spring 2020. Actually, the lawyer should take up his post on July 1 and be responsible for compliance. However, because the signs of balance sheet manipulation quickly increased, Freis had started his new job early on June 18.
Braun resigned a day later, and Freis became the new CEO within a day. A few days later, under Freis’ direction, the admission followed that the 1.9 billion could not be found, and finally bankruptcy.
According to Freis’ words, Braun had announced on June 18 that the money very likely existed. As one of his first official acts, Freis had the bank confirmations from the two Philippine banks that allegedly held the money presented to him.
According to Freis’ testimony, there were several obvious oddities: According to this, Wirecard had never paid any fees or custody interest for the accounts, most of the amounts were smooth. “That was economically unimaginable.” A mobile phone transfer of 400 million euros was also booked in one of the accounts. Freis said he had never heard of such a sum being transferred by mobile phone.
The manager is a specialist in white-collar crimes, the manager was formerly a senior official in the US Treasury Department responsible for combating money laundering and financial crime. After the bankruptcy at the end of June 2020, the insolvency administrator took over the helm.
In the largest fraud case in German post-war history, Freis’ predecessor Braun and two other former Wirecard managers are accused of commercial gang fraud. According to the indictment, they are said to have falsified Wirecard’s balance sheets since 2015 and damaged lending banks by 3.1 billion euros.
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