Millions of euros belonging to Wirecard were carried out of the Munich office in plastic bags

For several years, employees of the now-defunct fintech company Wirecard carried cash in plastic bags out of the Munich headquarters, totaling several million euros. The Financial Times reports, citing former employees familiar with the situation.

According to them, the practice began in 2012. The total amount, the money’s current whereabouts, and the purpose of the withdrawals from the building are unclear.

Wirecard, which handled payments processing, owned its own bank but had no branches. Subsequently, to store the cash, the company bought a safe and installed it at the headquarters.

According to internal emails reviewed by the FT, in May 2017 €500 000 in cash was delivered to the office. Because the safe was already full, part of the money was hidden somewhere in the premises.

A Wirecard employee who worked for almost two years until 2018 said that sums of €200 000 to €700 000 were withdrawn frequently, sometimes several times a week.

Based on these findings, the paper does not rule out theft of more than €100 million. Police-recorded withdrawals total around €6 million.

Some of them were booked as belonging to Wirecard Bank clients, among them dubious business partners such as the Philippine payments company PayEasy. It accounted for one-fifth of Wirecard’s operating profit.

Former employees also said that the majority of cash withdrawals were made by the assistant to a senior manager, Oliver Bellenhaus, who ran the subsidiary in Dubai. They said she sometimes handed cash-filled bags to unknown persons at Munich Airport. In one case, a six-figure sum was allegedly destined for Christopher Bauer, the Manila-based owner of PayEasy. Bauer died in the summer of 2020, shortly after Wirecard’s collapse.

Bellenhaus arrested in July 2020 on suspicion of fraud with aggravating circumstances while under investigation. He told prosecutors about nearly €15 million that had been transferred from Wirecard Bank accounts to offshore accounts of companies registered on the island of Antigua.

The origin of these €15 million, as well as the cash withdrawals, is unclear. A source familiar with the investigation suggested the funds may have come from Wirecard’s Asian division.

The former CEO Markus Braun, who is under investigation for data manipulation, said through his lawyers that he did not know about large withdrawals by clients or the dubious bank accounts. Braun was arrested in late June 2020 but released on bail of €5 million a couple of days later.

In June 2020, there was a hole of almost €2 billion in Wirecard’s balance sheet. The company subsequently began bankruptcy proceedings.

Former Wirecard top executive Jan Marsalek, described as the architect of the accounting fraud, fled several days before Munich prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for him. on suspicion of organizing an escape the former senior official of the Austrian secret service and a former deputy from the right-wing forces were arrested.

Marsalek’s whereabouts remain unknown. Some reports say he fled to Russia.

How Wirecard collapsed: dubious clients, faked reports and a hole of €2 billion

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