Former Wirecard chief executive Markus Braun has been arrested for a second time on allegations of direct involvement in a long-running fraud at the insolvent German payments processor.
Braun was initially arrested last month after quitting his post following the discovery of a €1.9 billion black hole in the company accounts.
At the time, Braun was released on bail of €5 million, but now finds himself back behind bars alongside two other board members, former finance boss Burkhard Ley and the group’s head of accounting Stephan von Erffa.
Munich prosecutors have told Bloomberg that the three conspired to obtain about €3.2bn in fraudulent loans.
"In reality, the suspects knew at least at the end of 2015 that the Wirecard Group was losing money," prosecutors said. "Deceived by faked accounts, banks in Germany and Japan as well as other investors granted funds of about 3.2 billion euros, which are now most likely lost."
The arrests come after the former head of Wirecard's Dubai unit, Oliver Bellenhaus, came clean to prosecutors about his role in the collapse of the company.
An arrest warrant remains outstanding for former COO Jan Marsalek, who is understood to be hiding in Moscow under the protective gaze of Russia's miliary spy unit the GRU.