German public prosecutor brings charges against ex-Wirecard CFO

Wirecard AG

14/12/2023 12:30

BERLIN, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Munich said on
Thursday they have brought charges against another former
Wirecard board member, long-time chief financial officer
Burkhard Ley. 
    Wirecard collapsed in June 2020 over a 1.9-billion-euro 
($2.08 billion) hole in its balance sheet, shaking up Germany's
business establishment and turning the spotlight on politicians
who backed it as well as regulators who took years to
investigate allegations against the firm.  
    Prosecutors accuse Ley of market manipulation, commercial
and organised fraud, and breach of trust, among other things.
    As CFO, and later as an adviser to the board, Ley, together
with ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun and other top managers,
manipulated sales by helping to fabricate the alleged
billion-dollar business with third-party customers in Asia,
according to the prosecutors.
    They said the incorrect figures were intended to drive up
the price of Wirecard shares, while the manipulated annual
financial statements served to raise money from banks. In total,
the damage amounted to several hundred million euros.
    Ley's lawyers rejected the accusations as unfounded and said
he had left the company before the main events of the scandal
unfolded. 
    He then received a "strategic consultancy contract", which
had nothing to do with the operational processes at Wirecard,
Ley's lawyer Norbert Scharf told Reuters on Thursday.
    If the Munich Regional Court accepts the charges, Ley would
be the fourth ex-Wirecard executive to have to face trial.
    Whereabouts of former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek,
who was responsible for the Asian business, are unknown, while
former boss Braun and two other ex-managers are on trial for
falsifying accounts and organised fraud. 
    They were accused of conspiring to invent vast sums of
phantom revenues through bogus transactions with partner
companies to mislead creditors and investors. 
    Braun has denied any wrongdoing, accusing other managers of
scheming behind his back.


($1 = 0.9148 euros)

 (Reporting by Christina Amann and Alexander Huebner, Writing by
Linda Pasquini
Editing by Miranda Murray and Tomasz Janowski)
 ((linda.pasquini@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 7785261;))