Former Wirecard executive Oliver Bellenhaus detailed the falsification of employment contracts and sales on Wednesday. “Of course we found that,” Bellenhaus said on day six of the lawsuit involving billions of trust accounts in Southeast Asia.
When asked by the court whether third-party business existed, Bellenhaus replied, “I’m very clear: no.” The payments service provider filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2020 after failing to find the 1.9 billion euros allegedly reserved in the trust accounts.
“Third party partners” were companies that allegedly processed credit card payments on behalf of Wirecard in countries where the Bavarian group did not hold the relevant license.
The sole purpose was to deceive the inspectors. “The auditor needed something, and then the panic started,” Bellenhaus said. “It was a big mess, everything was chaos.” CEO Markus Braun never asked when he signed -fake-contracts.
According to the indictment, Braun, Bellenhaus and the former head of accounting have falsified Wirecard’s balance sheets since 2015, causing a loss of 3.1 billion euros to lending banks.
(SDA)