Key witness describes "system of organized fraud"
Created: 2022-12-19Updated: 2022-12-19 11:37 am
According to the prosecutor's key witness, former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun was an "absolute CEO." © Peter Kneffel/dpa
The Wirecard scandal is believed to be the biggest fraud scandal in recent decades.
Key witness Oliver Bellenhaus is testifying in court today.
He confronts his former boss with serious allegations.
Munich – In the Wirecard trial, the key witness for the public prosecutor’s office accused former CEO Markus Braun as a key figure in years of billions in fraud.
"Wirecard was a cancerous growth," said co-defendant manager Oliver Bellenhaus today before the Munich Regional Court.
"There was a system of organized fraud." Braun was an "absolute CEO".
"If he said something, that's how it was done." Braun and Bellenhaus have both been in custody for two and a half years, the third accused is the former Wirecard chief accountant.
The public prosecutor accuses the three defendants and other suspects of forming a criminal gang of fraudsters and cheating the lenders of the Dax group, which collapsed in 2020, out of 3.1 billion euros with invented profits.
Brown denies the allegations.
The former Wirecard manager and key witness Oliver Bellenhaus (M) comes to the Munich courtroom to continue the trial.
© Lukas Barth/dpa
"He sees himself as a victim, and that's a well-known pattern," Bellenhaus said of his former boss.
Blind loyalty to Braun and the former sales director Jan Marsalek, who has been on the run for two and a half years, made him break the law and put him in prison.
Braun's defense attorney Alfred Dierlamm had previously accused the former Wirecard managing director in Dubai that he was not credible as a key witness and had concealed the embezzlement of millions during the investigation.
Dierlamm accused the public prosecutor of serious mistakes and omissions in the investigation and therefore wants to have the proceedings stopped.
The Chamber has not yet decided on the suspension request.
dpa