2024-06-05 16:52:39
Former millionaire Markus Braun is now represented by public defenders. His lead protection lawyer has resigned for monetary causes.
In the course of the fraud trial surrounding the billion-dollar chapter of the monetary group Wirecard, former CEO Markus Braun has misplaced his important protection lawyer. Legal professional Alfred Dierlamm informed the Reuters information company on Wednesday that he had misplaced his mandate within the trial earlier than the regional courtroom. München for monetary causes. The payment price range of the accountable supervisor legal responsibility insurance coverage had been used up. “The pot is empty,” mentioned Dierlamm.
“We expressly level out that the termination of the mandate is predicated solely on financial concerns and never on any causes associated to the matter itself,” Dierlamm and his regulation agency colleague Elena-Sabella Meier defined in a letter to the courtroom obtained by Reuters. Dierlamm is taken into account probably the most outstanding German prison protection legal professionals in quite a few industrial proceedings such because the VW diesel scandal or the Cum-Ex scandal.
The previous millionaire Braun is now being represented in these proceedings by public defenders who’re paid from the state treasury. In keeping with her personal statements, the lead lawyer was Theres Kraußlach, who had already joined Braun’s protection workforce earlier than the trial started in December 2022. The courtroom will resolve who will in the end need to pay the authorized prices in its verdict, which is anticipated subsequent yr.
The Dax group Wirecard collapsed in 2020 when it was found that 1.9 billion euros had been lacking from belief accounts in Asia. It is likely one of the greatest monetary scandals in post-war German historical past. The general public prosecutor’s workplace speaks of fraud, accounting fraud, market manipulation and breach of belief. Braun has rejected the allegations. A co-defendant who confessed is taken into account a key witness, a 3rd defendant has to this point remained silent.
Braun and quite a few different former Wirecard managers are concerned in quite a few prison and civil lawsuits due to the accounting scandal. A big a part of the prices had been borne by the insurer Chubb, with whom Wirecard, like many different corporations, had taken out legal responsibility insurance coverage for its prime managers. Because of the English time period “Administrators and Officers”, that is additionally known as D&O insurance coverage.
In keeping with info from authorized circles, Chubb’s pot for numerous proceedings amounted to round 17 million euros. There had additionally been litigation in a number of courts over this, in addition to over payment claims in opposition to different D&O insurers akin to Swiss Re. In his letter to the Munich Regional Courtroom, Dierlamm referred to the truth that Braun’s legal professionals had misplaced a authorized dispute with Chubb in Frankfurt on the finish of March.