Markus Braun

analysisWirecard's 2011 annual report gives 1 October 2004 as the start of Dr. Markus Braun's membership of the management board, where he was chairman and responsible for technology; the supervisory board reappointed him with his colleagues from 2012. His holding company, MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, was registered in Munich under HRB 152399 on 11 May 2004 with capital of EUR 25,000; it later moved its seat to Limburg an der Lahn, where an aggregator shows it under HRB 6968 with the Legal Entity Identifier 529900W00T44TXFNWF20, and a subsidiary's register page lists it at Wirecard AG's address in Aschheim. The 2011 annual report discloses that Wirecard AG had lent the company, whose sole shareholder was Braun, EUR 235,000 at the end of 2010, rising to EUR 241,000 during 2011 before full repayment that year. Wirecard announced on 30 June 2020 that Braun had resigned from the management board by mutual consent with immediate effect on 19 June 2020 and that his employment contract had been terminated. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

analysisBraun had sold most of his 8% stake on 18 and 19 June 2020 for EUR 155 million, according to a press report of 14 July 2020; a BaFin spokesperson said the authority had filed a criminal complaint against MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft over the sale of shares for EUR 6.6 million on 24 June, the day before the insolvency filing, that sales of EUR 3.4 million two days earlier were under review, and that the June sales would be examined for possible insider trading. It was said at the time that he had to sell to meet lenders' margin calls after the share price collapse. The complaint and examination are not findings, and their outcome is not in the record. Braun had been released from custody on 22 June 2020 on bail of EUR 5 million; a press report of 1 July 2020 stated that he had pledged real estate, including a villa in Kitzbühel worth millions, without saying to whom. ^{1 2}

analysisA technology news site, citing a newspaper, reported in July 2020 that Wirecard Bank had granted Braun a loan early in 2020, reportedly of EUR 35 million, approved according to the newspaper by the supervisory board on which Stefan Klestil sat; the supervisory board said it had not known of the loan. The record contains no bank or court document on it. The prosecution's account of the OCAP payments describes a EUR 35 million Wirecard Bank loan, cancelled as of 1 April 2020, with which Braun had refinanced a bank loan to his company and which was repaid with money from the March 2020 OCAP payment; this is an allegation the court has not ruled on. ^{3 4 5}

analysisOn 9 June 2022 the Munich I regional court confirmed an attachment order of EUR 140 million against Braun (5 HK O 17659/21); the related main action (5 HK O 17452/21), which by January 2023 ran to more than 1,000 pages, ended at first instance on 5 September 2024 with an order against three former board members, identified in press reporting as Braun and the finance and product board members, to pay EUR 140 million to the insolvency administrator; the former board members argued that they had not breached their duties, or not culpably, and the judgment was not final. MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft secured loans with Braun's private assets; on 21 February 2024 the Limburg local court placed it under provisional insolvency administration with the lawyer Carsten Koch as administrator. In the suspended suits against it, claimants allege that, acting through Braun as managing director, it unlawfully helped to put his assets beyond his creditors' reach; the court has summarised this as their allegation. A registry aggregator records a liquidation entry of 25 June 2024. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

analysisIn March 2022 the Munich I prosecutor charged Braun, abbreviated as "Dr. B.", together with the former head of accounting and the former head of the Dubai subsidiary; the indictment states the prosecution's case, which the court has to establish. The trial began on 8 December 2022, hearing dates have been set up to 23 December 2026, and no judgment had been announced by the cutoff. ^{6 1 7}