2023-07-20 15:47:56
In the Wirecard process, the former CEO Braun and the prosecution’s key witness are opponents – but they have one thing in common: both voluntarily turned themselves in to the judiciary.
München.
Shortly before the collapse of the scandalous Wirecard group, ex-CEO Markus Braun gave the alleged main suspect Jan Marsalek the right excuse for fleeing abroad. Former product director Susanne Steidl described the dramatic days in June 2020 as a witness in the Munich Wirecard trial on Thursday, when it became clear that 1.9 billion euros of company funds allegedly booked in the Philippines could not be found.
According to Steidl, both she and CFO Alexander von Knoop only realized the seriousness of the situation at that time. The 1.9 billion were reportedly held in Philippine escrow accounts. However, the local bank informed the group that the signatures on the contracts were forged.
The chief financial officer then came to her office, reported Steidl. “Susanne, look, we have a problem,” said von Knoop. “From that moment on there was a crisis,” the manager recalled. Marsalek was responsible for Asia on the Wirecard board. CEO Braun then said: “Jan, you have to fly to the Philippines.” Marsalek should therefore personally clarify the problem there. It cannot be deduced from Steidl’s statement that Braun deliberately provided Marsalek with an excuse to flee – she said nothing about that.
Instead of going to the Philippines to Russia
On June 18, 2020, Marsalek was suspended. “He then said goodbye to me, he flies to the Philippines and we’ll see each other in two weeks,” said Steidl. But Marsalek never entered there. Instead, the manager is said to have fled to Russia via Belarus, and he is wanted on an arrest warrant. Braun, on the other hand, turned himself in to the judiciary, as did the key witness from the public prosecutor’s office. Both have now been in custody for three years.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, a gang of fraudsters at Wirecard, with the significant participation of Braun and Marsalek, invented bogus deals worth billions. The investigators estimate the damage to the group’s lenders at over three billion euros. The accusation is essentially based on the statements of the co-defendant key witness Oliver Bellenhaus, former Wirecard manager in Dubai.
According to Braun, both business and proceeds were genuine. Instead, Marsalek, Bellenhaus and accomplices are said to have diverted and embezzled two billion euros from the group.
Marsalek recently sent the court a sensational letter through his lawyer, in which he accused former employee and key witness Bellenhaus of being a liar. Therefore, Braun’s defense attaches great importance to the letter.
However, the judges only want to decide after a period of reflection whether to include the letter as a “written witness statement” for the taking of evidence. “I will not break that over my knee at night,” said the presiding judge Markus Födisch. The defense of the key witness has declared the Marsalek letter to be “nonsense”. (dpa)
#Wirecard #Braun #Marsalek #excuse #flee #free #press