Wirecard trial

Defendant breaks his silence after 137 days

Main defendant Markus Braun

(Bild: APA/dpa/Peter Kneffel)

For 137 days, the third defendant in the fraud trial surrounding the billion-euro bankruptcy of the Wirecard financial group remained silent. On the 138th day of the trial, the former head of accounting made a statement. In it, he apologized and at the same time attacked the prosecution's key witness.

Oliver Bellenhaus, who largely concedes the charges and whose testimony incriminates the other two defendants, is "good at lying and distorting", said the former accountant in the course of his self-written statement, which, according to his defense lawyer, comprises around 190 pages. Stephan E. attributed the "eagerness to incriminate" his co-defendant to the fact that the latter had envied him his title and his salary. He had also "annoyed" him with his requests for receipts - probably also because Bellenhaus then had to falsify them.

Not really an accountant at all?
E. himself also admitted mistakes that he regretted. At the same time, the former accountant emphasized that he had never personally enriched himself and had always only wanted the best for the financial services provider. In addition, however, he claims that he was not responsible for many things or did not have time for them. The third defendant also emphasized that he was not actually an accountant himself.

Second defendant Oliver Bellenhaus has earned himself the status of a key witness.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Sven Hoppe)

Due to the personnel structure and the large number of orders, he "did not have the time and energy to scrutinize everything". He therefore always trusted the assessment of the individual departments. "If they were satisfied, so were we," he concluded before the judge on Wednesday.

At first, E. hardly commented on the third-party partner business, which played a central role in the collapse of Wirecard. However, he qualified his expectations right at the beginning of his testimony. This had not been the focus of his work and he only had a lot of information about it from hearsay. He could only talk about "many years at the desk" at Wirecard. 

Public prosecutor's office "disappointed" by statements
"We have not heard a confession," said court spokesman Laurent Lafleur, summarizing the first half of the 138th day of the trial. And the trend does not appear to be heading in that direction either. The public prosecutor's office was "a little disappointed" by the statements. The defense of the ex-Wirecard boss and Austrian-born Markus Braun, who is also on trial, was satisfied. E.'s testimony supported her client's statements. 

The payment service provider Wirecard went into insolvency in June 2020 because 1.9 billion euros held in escrow accounts could no longer be found. The indictment accuses the three defendants as well as the former Chief Sales Officer Jan Marsalek, who went into hiding, and other accomplices of having simply fabricated billions in sales in order to keep the loss-making group afloat.

The findings so far
After the 138 days of the trial so far, it is certain that criminal activity took place at Wirecard - even former CEO Braun never claimed that there was no fraud at Wirecard. But it is still not clear who played what role. 

There is no unequivocal evidence that Braun and chief accountant E. were members of a gang of fraudsters. The investigation is made more difficult because most of the events took place in the Middle East and South East Asia. The court has so far summoned dozens of foreign witnesses, most of whom did not appear.