Braun has been in custody since last summer. The next detention test is due in three months.
The former Wirecard boss, the Austrian Markus Braun, remains in custody for the time being. The Munich Higher Regional Court ordered the continuation of pre-trial detention, as a court spokesman said on Friday. The next detention test is due in three months. Pretrial detention was also extended for a second accused.
Several allegations
Braun has been in custody in prison in Augsburg-Gablingen since last summer. The manager has an Austrian passport, and the investigators fear that he could leave for his home country. The public prosecutor accuses Braun and other managers of the Wirecard group of fraud, market manipulation and money laundering.
Wirecard had filed for bankruptcy in June 2020, as the first Dax group ever. For years, the payment processor from Aschheim near Munich allegedly inflated the balance sheet and invented sales in Asia. The board member responsible for business in Asia, Jan Marsalek, also an Austrian, has gone into hiding since the events became known. Braun has faced the police.
Reports of irregularities
Various media had repeatedly reported on accounting irregularities for years, most recently the “Financial Times” in particular. On June 18, Wirecard admitted that there was no evidence for the existence of 1.9 billion euros in trust accounts with Philippine banks. On June 25, the company filed for bankruptcy.
