Wirecard Trial Abbreviated in Munich
The Wirecard trial in Munich has been shortened with the consent of the public prosecutor’s office. The prosecution is following a proposal from the court to limit the mammoth trial, which has been ongoing for over two years, to the ten most important charges. It is unclear when the trial will end, but without shortening, a verdict would not have been expected before 2026, as the chamber had made clear in December.
Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun, who has been in custody for four and a half years, and his two co-defendants cannot expect the expected sentences to be significantly lower as a result. According to senior public prosecutor Matthias Bühring on the 177th day of the trial, even if all of the original charges were to be heard, a significant increase in the overall sentence would not be expected.
The main accusation remains fraudulent gang activity. Braun and his accomplices are said to have kept the Dax-listed company afloat for years with the help of fictitious profits before it collapsed in 2020. The damage caused by the fraud to the lending banks is estimated at over three billion euros in the indictment. The fourth criminal chamber of the Munich I Regional Court will also pursue the charges of embezzlement, false information of the capital market, and falsification of consolidated financial statements for the years 2016, 2017, and 2018. In the original indictment, the charges against Braun alone included 43 different points.
Braun’s defense accused the court and the public prosecutor’s office of not being interested in real clarification. "This is a form of prejudgment on the part of the court," said lawyer Theres Kraußlach. "We are at a point where nothing has been clarified until now." Braun and his defense, in turn, accuse the fugitive former sales director Jan Marsalek of being the main perpetrator. "From our perspective, there is nothing to discontinue, because Dr. Braun must be acquitted on all points," said the defense attorney.
After more than two years of trial, business expert Wilhelm Hauser, who calculated the amount of damages in an 830-page paper, spoke for the first time on Wednesday. Hauser assumed that a criminal gang in Wirecard’s management had actually invented fictitious transactions on a large scale. According to this, the company lacked the money to repay a syndicated loan of 1.75 billion euros agreed in mid-June 2018, two years before its insolvency, as the economist stated in the first part of his expert opinion. The professor of business administration estimated the financial damage at that time to be at least 522 million euros.
Key Points
- The Wirecard trial in Munich has been shortened to focus on the ten most important charges.
- Former CEO Markus Braun and his co-defendants will not receive significantly lower sentences despite the abbreviation.
- The main charge remains fraudulent gang activity, involving the creation of fictitious profits to keep the company afloat.
- The prosecution will also pursue charges of embezzlement, false information of the capital market, and falsification of financial statements.
- Braun’s defense accuses the court and prosecution of prejudgment and maintains his innocence.
- An expert has estimated the financial damage at over 500 million euros two years before Wirecard’s insolvency.
