The legal processing of one of Germany’s biggest economic scandals will take much more time than initially expected. The Fourth Criminal Chamber of the Munich I Regional Court has scheduled 86 additional trial days until December 19 this year in the Wirecard case.
The trial against former CEO Markus Braun, key witness Oliver Bellenhaus and the former chief accountant of the company that went bankrupt in 2020 has been running since December 8, 2022. The chamber had originally planned 100 days of negotiations, the last of which will be January 10 next week.
1.9 billion euros disappeared
Wirecard went bankrupt in the summer of 2020 after accountants could not find 1.9 billion euros that should be booked on the balance sheet. According to the prosecutor, the money never existed. Braun and his accomplices are said to have acted like a criminal gang to falsify transactions to keep what was actually a loss-making company afloat.
Interviews with witnesses provided little insight
However, Braun, who was taken into custody in July 2020, has declared himself innocent. According to the Austrian manager, the real criminals around the absconding ex-sales director Jan Marsalek and key witness Bellenhaus would have earned enormous sums of money from the site.
Braun and Bellenhaus blame each other, and none of the witnesses interviewed so far have been able to shed any light on the case. However, numerous witnesses who had been called – mainly from abroad – did not even show up
Source: Krone
I’m Ben Stock, a journalist and author at Today Times Live. I specialize in economic news and have been working in the news industry for over five years. My experience spans from local journalism to international business reporting. In my career I’ve had the opportunity to interview some of the world’s leading economists and financial experts, giving me an insight into global trends that is unique among journalists.
