{"id":246549,"date":"2022-12-06T09:11:16","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T15:11:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=246549"},"modified":"2022-12-06T10:58:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-06T16:58:50","slug":"wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/","title":{"rendered":"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex-CEO Markus Braun to Face the Music in Munich"},"content":{"rendered":"

Markus Braun, former CEO of disgraced German fintech company Wirecard<\/a>, is expected to deny charges that include gang-related fraud when his trial begins Thursday in Munich.<\/p>\n

\"Markus
Markus Braun, above, before his fall from grace. Prosecutors say the former Wirecard CEO and others orchestrated a \u201cmassive criminal act\u201d that defrauded investors and lenders out of billions. (Image: AP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Braun’s company, which began life processing gambling<\/a> and porn payments, was feted as the leading light in German fintech, with a market cap in 2018 of \u20ac22 billion ($25 billion). Its spectacular 2020 implosion will go down as one of the biggest scandals in German corporate history.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors argue that Braun, as CEO, was responsible for everything that went on at Wirecard, including the falsifying of accounts to artificially inflate the company\u2019s assets and sales.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Braun is expected to point the finger at former COO Jan Marsalek, who disappeared just as the scandal broke. Marsalek, now one of the most wanted men in the world, is alleged to have ties to Russian intelligence and is believed to be hiding out in Moscow under the supervision of the GRU, the country\u2019s military intelligence agency.<\/p>\n

\u20ac1.9 Billion Missing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Things began to unravel for Wirecard in 2019 following a series of articles published in London\u2019s Financial Times<\/em> alleging financial impropriety in the company\u2019s Asian unit. Wirecard sued the publication for defamation.<\/p>\n

But on June 18, 2020, the Wirecard\u2019s auditor, Ernst & Young, refused to sign off on the company\u2019s 2019 accounts. That\u2019s because the auditor couldn’t confirm the existence of \u20ac1.9 billion (US$2 billion) in cash balances.<\/p>\n

The money was supposed to be sitting in trustee accounts at two Philippine banks. But the banks denied having a relationship with Wirecard. Braun resigned a day later.<\/strong><\/p>\n

On June 21, Wirecard said the money was \u201cmissing,\u201d and admitted it was \u201clikely\u201d that it never existed in the first place.<\/p>\n

German prosecutors accuse Braun, Marsalek, and two other former executives of orchestrating a \u201cmassive criminal act\u201d to defraud investors and lenders of billions.<\/p>\n

Double Life<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Marsalek was fired on June 18. That day, he told colleagues he was going to the Philippines to find the missing money. He booked a June 23 flight to Manila, but it was a false trail. A subsequent investigation by Philippine authorities discovered someone forged immigration records to make it appear as though he had entered the country.<\/p>\n

\n

Marsalek had, in fact, flown to Minsk, Belarus just hours after his firing, according to an investigation by Bellingcat, <\/em>Der Spiegel<\/em>, and The Insider.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Austrian national was found to have made short trips to Russia on an almost monthly basis in 2016 and 2017, using multiple passports, including a diplomatic passport.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Markus Braun, former CEO of disgraced German fintech company Wirecard, is expected to deny charges that include gang-related fraud when his trial begins Thursday in Munich. Braun’s company, which began life processing gambling and porn payments, was feted as the leading light in German fintech, with a market cap in 2018 of \u20ac22 billion ($25 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":246550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[84010,13692,84011],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWirecard Fraud Trial: Ex CEO Markus Braun Faces Music in Munich<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun is set to appear in a Munich courtroom Thursday yo face charges of fraud and market manipulation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex CEO Markus Braun Faces Music in Munich\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun is set to appear in a Munich courtroom Thursday yo face charges of fraud and market manipulation.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-12-06T15:11:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-12-06T16:58:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"799\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/\",\"name\":\"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex CEO Markus Braun Faces Music in Munich\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-12-06T15:11:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-12-06T16:58:50+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun is set to appear in a Munich courtroom Thursday yo face charges of fraud and market manipulation.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":799,\"caption\":\"Markus Braun, above, before his fall from grace. Prosecutors say the former Wirecard CEO and others orchestrated a \u201cmassive criminal act\u201d that defrauded investors and lenders out of billions. (Image: AP)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex-CEO Markus Braun to Face the Music in Munich\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex CEO Markus Braun Faces Music in Munich","description":"Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun is set to appear in a Munich courtroom Thursday yo face charges of fraud and market manipulation.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex CEO Markus Braun Faces Music in Munich","og_description":"Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun is set to appear in a Munich courtroom Thursday yo face charges of fraud and market manipulation.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2022-12-06T15:11:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-12-06T16:58:50+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":799,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/","name":"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex CEO Markus Braun Faces Music in Munich","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg","datePublished":"2022-12-06T15:11:16+00:00","dateModified":"2022-12-06T16:58:50+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun is set to appear in a Munich courtroom Thursday yo face charges of fraud and market manipulation.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/markus.jpg","width":1200,"height":799,"caption":"Markus Braun, above, before his fall from grace. Prosecutors say the former Wirecard CEO and others orchestrated a \u201cmassive criminal act\u201d that defrauded investors and lenders out of billions. (Image: AP)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wirecard-fraud-trial-ex-ceo-markus-braun-faces-music-in-munich\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Wirecard Fraud Trial: Ex-CEO Markus Braun to Face the Music in Munich"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246549"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}