Billion-dollar fraud: Verdict in the Wirecard trial in sight - deadline for defense lawyers

In the Munich Wirecard trial, the court is ringing in the final phase after almost four years and 291 days of negotiations. A verdict before Christmas is possible.

Munich. In the mammoth Munich trial surrounding the billion-dollar fraud involving the scandal group Wirecard, which collapsed in 2020, the judges are heading towards the verdict. On the 291st day of the trial, the fourth criminal chamber of the Munich regional court gave the defense lawyers of the former CEO Markus Braun and the two co-defendants a two-week deadline for final applications for evidence. The taking of evidence ends on November 26th. Unless there is another delay, the pleas from the public prosecutor and defense attorneys as well as the last words of the former CEO Markus Braun and his two co-defendants will follow.

The judges are planning six days of hearings for this. A verdict would then be possible before Christmas - that would be shortly after the fourth anniversary of the main hearing that began on December 8, 2022. “That too is already close when we need six days for the pleadings,” said Judge Födisch.

The DAX group Wirecard filed for bankruptcy in June 2020 because credit balances of 1.7 billion euros recorded on the balance sheet could not be found - to date, insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé has found no trace of the money. According to the indictment, Braun and accomplices fabricated the payment service provider's non-existent sales over the years in order to deceive the lending banks. The public prosecutor's office estimated the damage caused by the fraud at three billion euros.

Braun's defense theory does not meet with credence

The manager Oliver Bellenhaus, who formerly worked for Wirecard in Dubai, confirmed the public prosecutor's account in all essential points. The former CEO Braun, who has been in custody for over six years, has denied all allegations since the beginning of the trial - and emphasized again that he had firmly assumed the existence of the missing billions: "I don't put forward any theories," said Braun in response to the judge's accusation that his account was inconclusive. The Austrian manager, born in 1969, defends himself with the argument that the transactions were genuine, but that the profits were embezzled by the ex-sales manager Jan Marsalek, who went into hiding, Bellenhaus and other accomplices.