Markus Braun

Criminal proceedings against Markus Braun continued over several years. In May 2026, Bavarian judicial authorities scheduled further hearings through 23 December 2026 and explicitly stated that the timetable did not establish when the trial would end.

Attribution

Accused

Munich Regional Court I upheld a civil freeze of 140 million euros against Braun. For the interim measure, the court found sufficiently credible evidence that he had breached directors' duties over an unsecured 100-million-euro loan and two bonds totalling 100 million euros, of which only 60 million allegedly returned to Wirecard.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

Wirecard brought legal action against the Financial Times and a journalist seeking to prohibit articles concerning alleged manipulation in Asia and obtain compensation. After the collapse and commencement of insolvency proceedings, the action was halted and subsequently withdrawn in October 2020.

State of the evidence

Documented

KPMG's special audit reported that Wirecard had not provided sufficient documentation to verify several aspects of the allegations, notably certain third-party partner activities. Despite these reservations, Braun publicly declared that, in his view, none of the accusations had been substantiated.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

BaFin launched a review of the purchase of approximately 2.5 million euros in Wirecard shares by Braun's investment company, MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, around the delayed publication of annual accounts. The regulator examined whether the transaction breached restrictions on trading before results.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Wirecard announced that EY could not confirm the existence of 1.9 billion euros recorded in trustee accounts, equivalent to approximately a quarter of the balance sheet. The group referred to potentially falsified bank confirmations and postponed its results, triggering a share-price collapse and liquidity crisis.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Braun left office on 19 June. Three days later, Wirecard stated that the 1.9 billion euros recorded in its accounts had most probably never existed, transforming the audit crisis into an alleged accounting fraud scandal and pushing the group towards insolvency.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Directly implicated

Braun presented himself to the authorities following issuance of a warrant and was arrested on suspicion of artificially inflating Wirecard's balance sheet and revenues to make the company more attractive. A judge authorised his release on bail of five million euros.

Attribution

Accused

BaFin referred a new suspected insider trading offence to prosecutors concerning the sale on 24 June of approximately 6.6 million euros in Wirecard shares by Braun's investment vehicle MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft, the day before the insolvency filing. Another sale of 3.4 million was also examined.

State of the evidence

Documented

Munich prosecutors considerably expanded suspicions against Braun and other executives. They alleged that from 2015 the executives had inflated balance sheets and revenues through fictitious third-party partner activities to secure approximately 3.2 billion euros in financing. Braun was arrested again and remanded in pre-trial detention.

State of the evidence

Documented

Attribution

Accused

Under Markus Braun, Wirecard experienced spectacular growth and entered the DAX, while analysts and journalists, notably the Financial Times, published a series of allegations concerning accounting irregularities, Asian transactions and the authenticity of certain revenues. Braun and Wirecard publicly rejected these allegations for years.

State of the evidence

Allegations

Attribution

Directly implicated