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Markus Braun:
The ex-Wirecard boss continues to reject any blame - and also puts into perspective earlier statements that he failed
Photo: Angelika Warmuth / dpa
The former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun,
accused of alleged billion-dollar fraud,
is demanding that the judiciary search for a good two billion euros that have been missing since 2020.
"One would have to determine how much of it can be retrieved," Braun demanded on Thursday before the Munich I District Court.
The money is said to be proceeds booked in Southeast Asian escrow accounts, which were not found during Wirecard's 2020 audit.
This then led to the insolvency of the Dax group.
"I am convinced that the business existed, but that essential parts did not flow into the escrow account," emphasized Braun, who also presented himself as an innocent victim, as in his previous statements.
"You said you failed."
– "I wouldn't put it that way anymore today"
Braun contradicted the co-defendant key witness Oliver Bellenhaus, according to whose statement these proceeds were fictitious.
Both managers have been in custody for over two and a half years and blame each other.
Braun emphasized that he wanted to quit Bellenhaus in 2020 and remove Jan Marsalek, who had been in hiding since 2020, from power.
This was not the case after the bankruptcy.
The former Wirecard boss also put his own responsibility for the accounting scandal and the collapse of the Dax group into perspective.
The presiding judge Markus Födisch presented Braun with a statement from one of his interrogations by the public prosecutor.
At that time, Braun admitted that he had failed.
Braun said in court: "I wouldn't put it that way today."
"I had no knowledge of counterfeiting or embezzlement," Braun said on Monday in the Wirecard trial in Munich.
Braun also contradicts the key witness of the public prosecutor's office, who has seriously accused his former CEO in the course of the process so far.
The collapse of the former Dax group in June 2020 was "a real shock experience" for him, emphasizes the Austrian manager.
"On June 18th the world ended, and mine did too".
On that fateful day, the Wirecard board had to admit that 1.9 billion euros could not be found.
The money was allegedly held in escrow accounts in the Philippines and is still missing to this day.
Bankruptcy followed and Braun was held in custody.
The manager has been in prison for over two and a half years.
Braun expresses "deep regret" to the shareholders and his former employees in the company, which has meanwhile been largely wound up by the insolvency administrator.
