Wirecard’s short-term boss backs costs

In the Wirecard trial, the short-term successor to the accused ex-CEO Markus Braun substantiated doubts about the existence of the billions who had been missing for three years.

American administrator James Freis reported to the court in Munich I on Wednesday that he immediately distrusted bank confirmations of trust assets of 1.9 billion euros.

Wirecard’s supervisory board appointed Freis to its board of directors in the spring of 2020. In fact, the lawyer should take office on July 1 and be responsible for compliance. However, as signs of balance manipulation mounted rapidly, Freis had started his new job early on June 18.

Braun resigned a day later and within a day Freis became the new CEO. A few days later, led by Freis, the admission that the 1.9 billion could not be found followed, and eventually bankruptcy.

Various quirks

According to Freis, Braun had announced on June 18 that the money very likely existed. As one of his first official acts, Freis had bank confirmations from the two Philippine banks that allegedly held the money presented to him.

According to Freis’s testimony, there were several obvious quirks: Wirecard had never paid any fees or interest on the accounts, most of the amounts were slick. “That was economically unthinkable.”

Supposedly 400 million transferred by mobile phone

A mobile phone transfer of 400 million euros was also booked on one of the accounts. Freis said he had never heard of such an amount being transferred by mobile phone.

The manager is a specialist in white-collar crime, the manager was formerly a senior official in the United States Department of the Treasury, responsible for combating money laundering and financial crime. After the bankruptcy at the end of June 2020, the trustee took over the helm.

In the largest fraud case in German post-war history, Freis’ predecessor Braun and two other former Wirecard executives are charged with commercial gang fraud. According to the indictment, they have falsified Wirecard’s balance sheets since 2015 and damaged lending banks by 3.1 billion euros. (aeg/sda/awp/dpa)