The criminal trial against three former Wirecard top managers is expected to last until 2024. Defense attorneys are trying to derail the proceedings with allegations against the public prosecutor’s office.
In the Munich Wirecard trial, the lawyers of two of the three accused are now demanding that the proceedings be stopped. After the defense of the former CEO Markus Braun, the lawyer for the former chief accountant also applied for the trial to be suspended on Wednesday. Defense attorney Sabine Stetter accused the Munich I public prosecutor’s office of unlawful action and serious investigative errors. The accused are entitled to a fair and due process.
Stetter mentioned three points: The public prosecutor’s office is said to have withheld from the defense the statements of important witnesses or suspects that have been available for months. In addition, the investigators failed to secure a mailbox that is important for the process and to get an overview of the private salary account of the key witness Oliver Bellenhaus, Stetter said.
This is important for the process because ex-CEO Braun in particular accused the key witness of having set aside millions of company funds. Bellenhaus was Managing Director of the Wirecard company Cardsystems Middle East in Dubai until it went bankrupt in the summer of 2020.
According to prosecutors, the former chief accountant, the former Dubai managing director and Braun have been falsifying the payment service provider’s balance sheets since 2015 and damaging lending banks by 3.1 billion euros. If convicted, that would be the largest fraud damage in Germany since 1945.
Braun’s defense attorney Alfred Dierlamm had already applied for the suspension of the proceedings before Christmas because he accused the public prosecutor’s office of serious violations of the principles of the rule of law.
Both Braun and the former chief accountant have been extensively accused by key witness Bellenhaus in the course of the trial so far. Braun has issued a declaration of innocence through his lawyers and sees himself as a victim. The former chief accountant has not yet commented personally or through his lawyers on the indictment.
Wirecard’s ex-CEO Markus Braun is on trial in Munich. A star witness weighs heavily on her. He described the company as a “cancer” and Braun as the head of organized fraud.
Wirecard star witness Oliver Bellenhaus testified before the Munich Regional Court that the fraud of the former Dax group began long before 2015. However, the history is statute-barred. He accuses the former boss Markus Braun of “gang leadership”.
The process of the most spectacular fraud in German economic history began on Thursday: It’s about the Wirecard bankruptcy. The main accused is former CEO Markus Braun. On the other hand, one of the main masterminds of the scandal, Jan Marsalek, probably lives comfortably in Russia.
