Founded in 1999 and based in the Munich suburb of Aschheim, Wirecard's fairy-tale rise transformed it from a payment processor for pornography and online gambling to a showpiece for a new type of German tech company that could compete with the established titans of Europe's largest economy. It displaced Commerzbank in Germany's DAX blue-chip index and at one point was worth $28 billion, but its demise embarrassed the Germany establishment, placing politicians who backed the company and regulators who took years to investigate it under scrutiny.
The prosecution asserts that Wirecard invented vast sums of phantom revenue to mislead investors and creditors and drive up the share price. At the start of the trial, prosecutors said Braun and other senior managers formed a gang to create a false image of Wirecard as a successful company, when in reality its finances were shaky.
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"When in fact, at least according to the prosecution's investigation, there were actually only losses since 2015." EVIDENCE Prosecutors will draw on evidence from Braun's co-defendant Oliver Bellenhaus, the former head of Wirecard's subsidiary in Dubai, who became a witness after turning himself in to German authorities in 2020. His lawyer Florian Eder told reporters that Bellenhaus wanted to admit his own guilt but added that "there must also be a very, very clear reduction in sentence as a result." Another former executive, Stephan von Erffa, is also on trial.