Munich Prosecutors Raid Wirecard Offices As Probe Into $2BN Accounting Fraud Heats Up

The German leadership has already scapegoated an industry group, the Financial Reporting Enforcement Panel, over the Wirecard disaster in the hope that the appearance of reform might be enough to placate Brussels and ESMA after Germany’s most powerful financial regulator, BaFin, was exposed as virtually complicit in the biggest corporate accounting fraud in the country’s post-war history.

But as prosecutors continue to build their case and demonstrate to the German public (and the world, and most importantly Brussels) that they’re taking the Wirecard investigation extremely seriously, officers stormed several offices belonging to Wirecard, including the company’s headquarters.

Here’s more on that from Reuters:

Munich prosecutors and police searched Wirecard’s headquarters and four further properties as part of a fraud probe following the arrest of the payments firm’s former chief executive, Markus Braun, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Twelve prosecutors and 33 police officers were involved in the raids to investigate suspected fraud, including market manipulation, prosecutors said.

A spokeswoman told Reuters that prosecutors were investigating board members Alexander von Knoop and Susanne Steidl, as well as Braun and former director Jan Marsalek. Those people could not be immediately reached for comment.

Wirecard CEO/mastermind Markus Braun, meanwhile, remains out on bail.