Key Witness in Wirecard Trial Said that Books Were “Specifically” Adjusted
The Wirecard trial goes to the next round. The key witness in the trial confessed that the company books were hectically and specifically adjusted to fit the fraud. Those fake books were then shown to the auditor.
The Wirecard Company Books Falsified its Books to Display them to Auditors. / Picture: © Europol / 2021 Europe's most wanted
According to the defendant Oliver Bellenhaus, managers at the Wirecard financial group always falsified the books precisely to deceive the auditors. That often happened in a rush, the key witness said today in the criminal proceedings in front of the Munich Regional Court, as reported by ORF.
According to Die Presse, The decisive question was: "Is the auditor happy?" Shortly after Wirecard went bankrupt in the summer of 2020, Bellenhaus turned himself into the Munich public prosecutor and gave extensive testimony there. His lawyers have asked for a reduced sentence and his release from custody, which the court and prosecutors have so far refused. Bellenhaus has been in custody for around two and a half years.
In addition to Bellenhaus, the former Wirecard boss Markus Braun and the former chief accountant Stephan von Erffa are accused. The public prosecutor accuses them of accounting scandals, market manipulation, embezzlement, and organized fraud. Unlike Bellenhaus, Braun's and von Erffas' lawyers have rejected the allegations, as stated by ORF.
As reported by Die Presse, Braun, who is also in custody, has not yet personally commented on the charges in the process. It is unclear whether he will speak or remain silent on January 19, as planned by the court. Braun's defense attorney Alfred Dierlamm had stated that the court must first decide on his request to suspend the process. Dierlamm justified the application with an unmanageable flood of new case files. The company, which was listed on the German Stock Index, collapsed in June 2020 when it became known that 1.9 billion euros were missing from the accounts. The Wirecard bankruptcy is one of the biggest financial scandals in post-war German history.