Markus Braun's stonewall testimony tests judge's patience

• Published date: 21 March 2023

The former Wirecard boss still wears his black turtlenecks. He is as self-confident, polite and intransigent as ever. His statements in the trial in Munich examining one of Europe's biggest accounting frauds have been peppered with PowerPoint presentations and industry jargon. They have often sounded more like investor briefings than statements in a criminal case

Braun's testimony ended last week. Dozens of other witnesses are lined up to appear in proceedings that are expected to last until mid-2024 at the earliest, but the 53 year old is the central figure in the case.

Together with two former colleagues, he faces charges of fraud, embezzlement and market and accounting manipulation. If found guilty on all counts, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in jail.

Yet in hour after hour of court time since mid-February, he has remained remarkably unfazed, always denying any wrongdoing in a firm but affable manner. "I want to be very precise here," he has said.

He has even appeared to enjoy some of the conversation with presiding judge Markus Födisch, answering questions politely, patiently and often with a smile.

All the way through, he has been unwavering in his position. He has also retracted the few admissions of accountability he made to prosecutors during the early stage of the investigation back in 2020.

Braun tells German court he had 'no knowledge' of fraud that resulted in Wirecard's collapse

In his opening statement at the trial, he said that the day of Wirecard's collapse was a "day of deepest regret and pain" but has not said since what it was that he regretted. The fraud, he is adamant, was orchestrated entirely without his knowledge and involvement.

Instead, he has blamed Wirecard's fugitive second-in-command, Jan Marsalek, as well as former Dubai-based manager Oliver Bellenhaus. The latter is one of the three defendants in the case but he has turned chief witness and has implicated Braun heavily.

The third defendant, Wirecard's former head of accounting, Stephan von Erffa, also denies all wrongdoing.

Braun disputes even the most basic facts of the case. After long investigations, Wirecard's administrator and criminal prosecutors maintain that the payment company's outsourced operations in Asia, which on paper accounted for half the company's revenue and €1.9 billion in corporate cash, were a sham. Braun is insistent that these operations did very much exist.

His version of events is that Marsalek and Bellenhaus created a "shadow structure"...