MUNICH, Feb 13 (Reuters) – The previous boss of Wirecard on Monday expressed his “deepest remorse” over the collapse of the defunct funds firm however denied all allegations as he took to the stand in Germany’s largest post-war fraud trial.
Wearing his trademark black turtleneck and rimless spectacles, the one-time chief govt Markus Braun stated he had no data of any forgery or embezzlement and believed he was operating a legit and wholesome enterprise.
Austrian-born Braun, 53, and two different ex-Wirecard managers Oliver Bellenhaus and Stephan von Erffa are on trial on fees together with market manipulation and fraud and withstand 15 years every in jail if convicted.
Braun has been in custody because the 2020 collapse of Wirecard, which shook Germany’s enterprise institution, placing politicians who backed it and regulators who took years to research allegations towards the agency beneath intense scrutiny.
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“I had no data of counterfeiting or embezzlement,” Braun instructed a court docket in Munich, describing the invention of 1.9 billion euro ($2 billion) gap in Wirecard’s stability sheet as a “day of ache” for shareholders and workers.
Within the opening exchanges of the trial final 12 months, Bellenhaus, who grew to become a key witness after turning himself in to the authorities, painted Braun as an “absolutist CEO” calling the photographs on the coronary heart of an enormous swindle.
Braun, who has spoken solely briefly earlier than on the trial to substantiate his private particulars, pushed again towards that characterisation, saying he had relied on what he believed to be correct accounting and auditing.
In the beginning of an affidavit that’s anticipated to go on for a number of days, Braun retold his early years at Wirecard, describing a struggling startup the place he and different managers pulled all-nighters and labored with a way of mission.
“There was in actuality no life exterior the corporate,” he stated, talking all through in a peaceful and concentrated voice.
In the beginning of the trial in December, prosecutors accused the defendants of being a part of a gang that invented huge sums of phantom income by bogus transactions with companion firms to mislead collectors and buyers.
Braun’s legal professionals have alleged that Bellenhaus was the primary perpetrator of the fraud at Wirecard, which started processing funds for pornography and on-line playing and rose to be a blue chip DAX firm value $28 billion.
Reporting by Jörn Poltz and Alexander Hübner
Writing by Matthias Williams
Enhancing by Mark Potter
Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.
