Prosecutors charge former Wirecard CEO

German prosecutors have charged former Wirecard chief executive Markus Braun in relation to the collapse of the payments firm last year.

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Prosecutors charge former Wirecard CEO

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Braun is charged with fraud, misappropriation of corporate assets, accounting fraud and market manipulation. He faces several years in prison if found guilty.

Munich prosecutors say that he signed off on financial reports he knew to be false and that the company booked revenue that did not exist, according to the AP.

Former Wirecard chief accountant Stephan von Erffa and the ex-managing director of the firm's Dubai-based unit have also been charged.

Braun was first arrested nearly two years ago but is only now being charged in the highly complex case with a 474 page indictment.

Once valued at more than 20 billion euros, Wirecard filed insolvency proceedings in 2020, admitting that 1.9 billion euros that had been on its balance sheet could not be found.

Authorities are still seeking former COO Jan Marsalek, who in 2020 was understood to be hiding in Moscow under the protective gaze of Russia's military spy unit the GRU.

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Comments: (3)

Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith Founding CTO at RTGS & ClearBank

Why only the CEO? Why not the entire ExCo, well those that knew what was going on....

A Finextra member 

Indeed, the exco should face criminal charges as well as the entire board. Furthermore they should all be liable to pay damages either for wilful misconduct of for gross negligence. This in addition to a ban on any presence in the financial industry in the future.

A Finextra member 

In addition to this, it would be highly likely that a raft of other criminal offences were being committed,  such as:  Mis-Coding, money laundering and processing for PEPs or Sanctions listed individuals, countries or merchants

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