Former Wirecard boss' lawyer says prosecutors got the wrong man (updated)

Wirecard AG

12/12/2022 15:21

(Adds quote, details)
    By Jörn Poltz
       MUNICH, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Former Wirecard boss Markus
Braun's lawyers accused prosecutors of botching Germany's
biggest post-war fraud trial at the start of his defence on
Monday and alleged that their key witness was in fact the main
perpetrator. 
    Braun, 53, and two other ex-Wirecard managers Oliver
Bellenhaus and Stephan von Erffa are on trial on charges
including market manipulation and fraud at the defunct payments
company and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted. 
    Wirecard's collapse two years ago shook the German business
establishment, putting politicians who had backed it and
regulators who took years to investigate allegations against the
company under intense scrutiny.
    Braun has always denied wrongdoing.
    The lawyer for Bellenhaus, who was head of Wirecard's
subsidiary in Dubai and became a witness after turning himself
in to German authorities in 2020, said he admits responsibility.
The lawyer last week asked for a reduced sentence and for
Bellenhaus to be released from custody in recognition of his
client's co-operation.
    Von Erffa has expressed regret about the events but his
lawyer on Monday denied any wrongdoing on his part.
    At the start of the trial in Munich last week, prosecutors
accused Braun and his co-defendants of being part of a gang that
invented vast sums of phantom revenue through bogus transactions
with partner companies to mislead creditors and investors.
    They said the deception allowed Wirecard's managers to
siphon money out of the company for years. 
    Braun's lawyer Alfred Dierlamm's defence sought to puncture
those claims in court. He said that Braun had never sold his
Wirecard shares and had actually taken the initiative to call in
outside auditors from KPMG to investigate its finances.
    "It's an absolutely absurd and erroneous notion that a gang
leader would act like this," Dierlamm said. 
    He said prosecutors were biased against Braun, who was
arrested in 2020, adding they were under pressure to find a
culprit after fellow Wirecard manager, Jan Marsalek, fled
abroad. 
    Dierlamm said that Bellenhaus, who is the prosecution's key
witness, was the main perpetrator of fraud and asked for the
trial to be suspended to give the defence more time given the
volume of "files that were dumped on our table" on a weekly
basis since the start of November.
    'NOT A KEY WITNESS' 
    Founded in 1999 and based in the Munich suburb of Aschheim,
Wirecard's spectacular rise transformed it from a payment
processor for pornography and online gambling to a showpiece for
a new type of German tech company that could compete with the
established titans of Europe's largest economy.
    After batting away suspicions of wrongdoing from investors
and journalists and successfully lobbying the German authorities
to investigate those who were scrutinising its finances,
Wirecard finally admitted in June 2020 that 1.9 billion euros
($2 billion) were missing from its balance sheet.
    Wirecard became the first-ever member of the DAX blue chip
stock index to file for insolvency, owing nearly $4 billion.
    Dierlamm said Bellenhaus was not credible as the key witness
in the case. 
    "Bellenhaus is the main perpetrator of a gang whose sole aim
was to siphon off and embezzle large sums of money from Wirecard
AG's wealth," Braun's lawyer said.
    Von Erffa's lawyer Sabine Stetter also said in a statement
that Bellenhaus was a "dubious witness".
    Bellenhaus deleted huge amounts of e-mails, allegedly lost
his mobile phone and laptop and only reported selectively to the
public prosecutor, she added.
    Florian Eder, Bellenhaus' lawyer, dismissed Dierlamm's
allegations as "outrageous" and a smokescreen, questioning
whether Bellenhaus would really have stashed money away abroad
and only returned to Germany "to dob Dr Braun in". 
    Dierlamm countered prosecution claims that no real money
flowed to Wirecard's partner companies and said the prosecution
had not been thorough in checking evidence of payments. 
    "As a result of the serious omissions in the investigative
process, we now have a shambles in front of us," he said. 
    A verdict is not expected before 2024 at the earliest. 
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Wirecard bosses' fraud trial begins after scandal that rocked
Germany     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N32Y0I4
TIMELINE-The rise and fall of Wirecard     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N32V2I0
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 (Writing by Matthias Williams. Editing by Jane Merriman and
Alexander Smith)
 ((matthias.williams@thomsonreuters.com;))