Former Wirecard CEO Faces Up to 15 Years in Prison

Prosecutors in Munich charged on March 10 the former CEO of bankrupt German fintech company Wirecard, Markus Braun, with fraud, breach of trust, falsified accounts and market manipulation. Now, he faces up to 15 years in prison, the Financial Times reports.

Brown, who was initially released on bail in June 2020, was re-arrested in July of that year to avoid absconding. Now his indictment consists of 474 pages – it is based on the interrogation of 450 witnesses and suspects, as well as the results of searches at 40 objects.

Brown is currently the only defendant among the members of the board of directors. In addition to him, the former head of accounting, Wirecard’s deputy financial director Stephan Freiherr von Erffa and a former chief executive from Dubai, whose name has not been released because he was the main witness against Brown, are involved in the case.

They are accused of conspiring to inflate Wirecard’s balance sheet and set up a fictitious outsourcing business in Asia.