The Wirecard process involved billions of dollars in fraud: who should be held accountable. Former board member Marsalek contacted his lawyer for the first time since his escape, but he remains in hiding.
According to media reports, Jan Marsalek, a fugitive former board member of Wirecard, wrote to the 1st District Court of Munich through his defense lawyer. Spokesmen for the prosecutor’s office and the court thus confirmed that the letter was received by the fourth largest criminal court, which is negotiating the alleged billion-euro fraud case against Wirecard.
Neither side mentioned the content. Economic Weekly previously reported on the letter. “We commented on different parties and different people,” Masalek’s lawyer told AFP.
Obvious opinion Third party business
The Austrian did not respond specifically to the allegations against him, Economic Weekly reported. However, he made comments about third-party business in Asia, which is the focus of the process against former chief executive Markus Braun and two other former managers. “He is said to have made people understand that, contrary to what the prosecutor’s office has said, there is,” the report said, without citing sources.
Marsalek, who runs Asia operations and left shortly after the payment processor went bankrupt three years ago, will support Braun’s position. Along the way, he repeatedly claimed that Wirecard was actually handling business for third-party partners in Asia, and that the funds raised thereby had been put on hold.
charge against the exmanaging Director
The prosecutor’s office contends that the alleged multibillion-dollar deal was sham and that profits from it were fabricated. The alleged former Wirecard representative in Dubai, Oliver Bellenhaus, admitted as a key witness to the multibillion-dollar fraud. According to the magazine, Masalek said in his lawyer’s letter that Bellenhaus had failed to tell the truth in several respects.
“You can write a lot, you can say a lot, but you don’t have to believe everything,” Bellenhaus’ lawyer Florian Edel told Economic Weekly. Insolvency administrator Michael Jaffe also found nothing. transactions and believed that this proved that the transactions were fabricated.
gang fraud charges
Braun and two co-defendants are on trial on charges including gang fraud. You face long prison terms. The 1st District Court of Munich has been discussing the Wirecard case for several months. The Wirecard bankruptcy is one of Germany’s biggest economic scandals. Braun and other members of Wirecard’s board of directors have allegedly registered billions of dollars in bogus transactions over the years to defraud large loans. He denies the allegations and blames Masalek.
In the summer of 2020, when the collapse of the former Dax Group became apparent, the former Wirecard board member left the country. According to various media reports, Masalek fled to Russia. The letter offers at least one indication that Masalek was following the process from afar.
The trial will continue on Wednesday. Susanne Steidl, a former board colleague of Braun and Marsalek who led Wirecard product development, will sit on the witness stand. The manager – like Braun and Marsalek from Austria – is alleged to have no knowledge of the Wirecard gang’s criminal activities.