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Wirecard scandal: Ex-boss refuses to testify in the investigative committee - "I won't say more ..."

2020-11-21T06:03:01.696Z


The first witness in the committee of inquiry into the Wirecard scandal is a top-class figure. What does ex-CEO Braun reveal? A court forces him to appear in Berlin in person.


The first witness in the committee of inquiry into the Wirecard scandal is a top-class figure.

What does ex-CEO Braun reveal?

A court forces him to appear in Berlin in person.

Update from November 19, 2:28 p.m.:

The former boss of the scandal company Wirecard,

Markus Braun

, does not see any unfair behavior by authorities and politics in connection with the

accounting scandal

.

He had "at no time made determinations or received indications that authorities, supervisory bodies or politicians had not behaved correctly, in breach of duty or in any form unfair," said Braun on Thursday in front of the

Bundestag investigative committee

.

This also applies to the supervisory board as a controlling body and to the auditors.

He will not say more in front of the committee, said Braun, who has been in

custody

since the summer

.

He first wanted to

speak

to the

public prosecutor

.

“In the end, independent judges will decide who bears legal responsibility for the collapse of the Wirecard AG company,” he said.

Braun then refused to testify to any questions from MPs.

Wirecard / Investigation Committee: Markus Braun has to testify before the Investigation Committee

First report from November 19, 10:56 a.m .:

Munich / Berlin - The former boss of the scandal company

Wirecard

is

to

testify

on Thursday in the

investigation committee of

the Bundestag about the

balance sheet fraud

.

The MPs want to ask the ex-manager about his contacts to politics and authorities.

That he will comment on possible criminal activities and the specific

allegations of fraud by

the public prosecutor's office is assessed as rather unlikely.

Witnesses don't have to incriminate themselves.

Markus Braun

is one of the main people responsible for the fraud scandal in which Wirecard is said to have booked billions in bogus transactions for years.

The committee wants to discover whether the German

fintech company,

as an up-and-coming star on the stock exchange, was

handled with kid gloves

by the

supervisory authorities

despite indications of irregularities.

It is also about failures of the politicians, which is why Braun's contacts could be relevant.

Wirecard / Investigation Committee: Markus Braun is in custody

The ex-manager sitting since the summer in Bavaria in

custody

.

Originally he did not want to appear in person before the committee in Berlin, but instead wanted to testify via video.

However, the Federal Court of Justice did not allow these applications, so Markus Braun * was brought to Berlin on Wednesday.

He stays in a

prison

.

Incidentally, Mr. Braun's lawyers are said to have stated in his defense that I would like to have him shown in pijama if necessary!

Do not worry.

He can also appear in a turtleneck!

I am generous there.

- Fabio De Masi (Member of the Bundestag) (@FabioDeMasi) November 17, 2020

Braun is not the only witness who

is supposed to testify in front of the committee

on

Thursday

: A member of the

Wirecard supervisory board

, the former head of accounting and a manager responsible for the Wirecard subsidiary in Dubai are also questioned.

The two managers should be connected via video - probably also so that they do not meet Braun.

Wirecard / Investigation Committee: Years of losses in the insolvent Dax group

The now

insolvent Dax * group

had

granted

air bookings

of 1.9 billion euros

in the summer

.

The company, once traded as the German hope for technology, sat as a service provider for cashless payments at shop tills and on the Internet at the interface between

merchants

and

credit card companies *

- in a highly competitive market.

According to the current status of the investigation, Wirecard * made

losses

for years

.

The

Munich prosecutor

assumes that since 2015

fictitious profits

were auswiesen.

According to their calculations, banks and investors alone lost more than three billion euros.

But they are not the only victims; many

shareholders also

lost money because the Wirecard share * crashed rapidly after the scandal became known.

On Wednesday it became known that after the bankruptcy, a good 11,500 creditors filed claims totaling 12.4 billion euros.

This sum exceeds the proceeds achieved so far in winding up the group many times over.

It is ruled out that the insolvency administrator will

completely get back the

billions lost

.

Wirecard / Committee of Inquiry: Merkel and Scholz should also be questioned as witnesses

In addition to Wirecard itself, the

financial supervisory authority Bafin

and an auditing company are criticized

in the case

.

Central questions in the political reappraisal should be when the federal government knew about the irregularities and whether it did too little about it.

Chancellor

Angela Merkel

*

(CDU *), who campaigned for Wirecard on a trip to China last year, and Finance Minister

Olaf Scholz

(SPD *) are also to be questioned as witnesses in the investigative committee.

In response to the scandal, Scholz presented an action plan for reforming financial supervision.

The opposition accuses him, however, of trying to divert attention from his own failure as the top head of financial supervision.

A

committee of inquiry

has more rights than ordinary Bundestag committees.

He can

question witnesses

and

experts

and demand inspection of the files.

(dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the Ippen digital network.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-11-21

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