Milliardenbetrug: Wirecard: Verteidigung blitzt mit Aussetzung ab

The Munich Wirecard trial continues to progress, with the judges refusing to suspend proceedings that have been ongoing for nearly four years. The Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation had previously reported on this. The court is set to hear arguments from prosecutors and defense attorneys by November, as Chairman Judge Markus Födisch announced during the trial's 285th day.

The judges aim to keep the trial from derailing. The lawyers representing former executives Markus Braun, who were in custody since July 2020, had requested the suspension of the proceedings. This would not have been a mere interruption, but rather a complete restart of the main trial at an unknown future date. The chamber, however, views suspending the proceedings for the largest fraud case in post-war German history as extremely unlikely.

The defense sought to await the outcome of a separate fraud case against a former Wirecard manager, who is believed to have played a crucial role in the 2020 discovery of a billion-euro fraud at the company. However, the chamber does not consider this necessary, as the woman was already summoned in the spring and declined to testify.

The former DAX corporation collapsed in June 2020 after accounting for €1.7 billion in missing deposits. Prosecutors estimated the fraud damage at €3 billion. Braun denies all allegations from the trial's beginning. A date for the defense's submission of new evidence and witness calls is planned, followed by arguments and a verdict.

Judge Födisch intends to announce a date within the next two weeks for the defense to submit any remaining evidence. This period will be brief, consisting of only a few weeks, as Födisch has clearly indicated in recent weeks. The end of the evidence-gathering phase will then be followed by prosecution charges, final statements from the accused, and a verdict.