Munich Wirecard trial: Court rejects Markus Braun's defense strategy

In the Munich Wirecard trial surrounding the years-long billion-dollar fraud in the executive suite of the DAX group that collapsed in 2020, a long prison sentence for former CEO Markus Braun is getting closer and closer. After more than three and a half years of litigation, the judges declared the victim theory advocated by Braun to be “speculation”. “Despite extensive investigations, nothing has emerged about all of this,” said presiding judge Markus Födisch. In addition, Braun and his two co-defendants have to fear the confiscation of millions if they are convicted.

According to the indictment, Braun and accomplices are said to have recorded fictitious billion-dollar sales in Wirecard's balance sheets over the years. These transactions were mainly booked through three so-called “third party partners” in Dubai, Singapore and the Philippines. These were companies that allegedly processed credit card payments in Asian countries on behalf of Wirecard. There was “no evidence whatsoever” as to the existence of this third-party partner business, said Födisch.

Braun had repeatedly protested his innocence. According to the Austrian manager, the third-party business was real, and the high profits were said to have been diverted by the real perpetrators around ex-sales director Jan Marsalek, who went missing in 2020, without the knowledge of the CEO. However, according to Judge Födisch, there is no evidence of embezzlement. Instead, the chairman spoke of a “lack of coherence in the thesis itself”. Braun has been in custody continuously since July 2020 - if the judges considered the former stock market star, born in 1969, to be innocent, he should be released.

The process, which opened in December 2022, is heading towards the firing phase. Födisch gave the three defendants formal information that the chamber could also collect the “wages” in the event of a conviction. In Braun's case, that is almost 39 million euros, the majority of which was booked with Braun's personal investment company. The key witness Oliver Bellenhaus, who confirmed the main points of the accusation, is worth a good six million euros. The third defendant is the former chief accountant E., who could face confiscation of over 600,000 euros.

In the wake of the scandal, however, Braun's investment company also filed for bankruptcy. The former billionaire had invested most of his assets in Wirecard shares, which are now worthless, and the former Wirecard boss has not had access to the rest of his money for a long time.