Wirecard fraud case: German prosecutors bring first charges
Markus Braun, a former Wirecard Executive and business associate of Jan Marsalek, is the first person to be charged by a German prosecutor for a multi-billion-euro fraud at a payment company.
According to a prosecutor from Munich, the man was charged with 26 money laundering accusations on 21 December 2021. He is suspected of having participated in Marsalek’s plan to launder £22m ($25m) of embezzled Wirecard funds.
The prosecution plans to have Braun prosecuted by the end of March. The man, who has already been in custody for 18 months, is claiming he was a victim of Marsalek and has emphasised his intention to prove his innocence.
He supposedly embezzled and cleaned Wirecard’s assets worth over £22m by participating in a project with Marsalek and Rami El O, who is currently under investigation.
The prosecution stated that Braun was accused of “intentional money laundering combined with exacerbation of fraud and willful violations of accounting obligations.”
“The defendant has been accused of buying and refurbishing private real estate, and setting up and funding his family office in Switzerland,” the prosecutor added.
Both Marsalek and Braun’s lawyers have refused to comment on the matter.
In 2021, Singapore had filed a lawsuit against two men, accusing them of tampering with documents allegedly holding hundreds of millions of euros in bank accounts on behalf of Wirecard.
The mentioned documents were proven to be part of a scheme in which Wirecard claims that half of its revenue derives from a deal with an obscure payment processing company headquartered in Singapore, Dubai and the Philippines.
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