Twelve prosecutors were supported by 33
police officers as well as police IT experts
in Wednesday’s raids, Munich prosecutors
said. Five locations were searched — three in
Germany, including Wirecard’s headquarters
in the Munich suburb of Aschheim, and two in
neighboring Austria.
Markus Braun, an Austrian who had led
Wirecard since 2002, was arrested last week
on suspicion of incorrect statements of
data and market manipulation, and then
released on bail. He had resigned as CEO days
earlier, shortly after Wirecard said auditors
couldn’t find accounts in the Philippines that
were supposed to contain 1.9 billion euros
($2.1 billion).
His arrest came hours after the company
said it had concluded that the money
probably didn’t exist. Investors wiped out
much of Wirecard’s share value over the
past two weeks, and the company said
Thursday it was filing for insolvency, a form of
bankruptcy protection.
Prosecutors have said they suspect Braun
of inflating the company’s financial position
using sham income, “possibly in collaboration
with further perpetrators,” in order to “portray
the company as financially stronger and more
attractive for investors and clients.”
Wirecard’s headquarters was already searched
on June 5 in an investigation of narrower
allegations of market manipulation, involving
suspicions that managers may have given
“misleading signals” for the company’s share
price in statements in March and April,
prosecutors said.