German prosecutors file first prices in Wirecard fraud

A former enterprise affiliate of ex-Wirecard govt Jan Marsalek has change into the primary individual to be charged by German prosecutors over the multibillion-euro fraud on the as soon as high-flying funds firm.

Munich prosecutors mentioned in a press release on Thursday that they’d on December 21 charged a person with 26 counts of cash laundering. It’s alleged he participated in a scheme with Marsalek to launder €22m of embezzled Wirecard funds.

Marsalek, who’s accused of orchestrating the years-long fraud and the theft of as a lot as a billion euros, has not been seen because the fintech crashed into insolvency after admitting that €1.9bn of money and half of its revenues didn’t exist.

The fees towards a minor participant in Marsalek’s orbit spotlight the problem of prosecuting perpetrators of certainly one of Germany’s largest accounting frauds, in a case through which quite a few Wirecard’s former executives and auditors stay below investigation.

Prosecutors have mentioned they purpose to convey prices towards Markus Braun, the previous chief govt and largest shareholder within the failed group, by the top of March. Braun, in custody for 18 months, has mentioned he was a sufferer of Marsalek, his former protégé, and intends to show his innocence.

A lawyer for Marsalek declined to remark.

The person charged final month is accused of “deliberate cash laundering together with aggravated fraud and deliberate violation of accounting duties”, prosecutors mentioned. He has not been named, has beforehand denied wrongdoing, and his lawyer declined to remark.

He’s alleged to have participated in a scheme with Marsalek and a person prosecutors named as Rami El O, who can also be below investigation, to embezzle and launder belongings of Wirecard price not less than €22m by investing in German start-ups.

The charged man can also be accused by prosecutors of misappropriating not less than €8m of embezzled funds from Rami El O and Marsalek.

“The defendant is accused of shopping for and renovating non-public actual property and to have based and funded his circle of relatives workplaces in Switzerland,” prosecutors mentioned.

The indictment follows prices in Singapore filed final yr towards two males accused of falsifying paperwork which purported to indicate a whole lot of thousands and thousands of euros held in financial institution accounts on behalf of Wirecard.

The paperwork had been a part of a scheme through which Wirecard claimed half of its revenues got here from preparations with obscure fee processing corporations primarily based in Singapore, Dubai and the Philippines.