Wirecard bankruptcy Wirecard top executives sentenced to 140 million euros in damages

The Munich Regional Court has sentenced three former members of the group management of the bankrupt payment service provider Wirecard to pay huge damages. The CEO, the CFO and the product manager are to pay a total of 140 million euros.

The presiding judge Helmut Krenek assumes that they acted at least negligently when granting a loan and subscribing to bonds and must therefore be liable for the damages incurred. Specifically, the case concerns the former CEO Markus Braun as well as the finance and product directors.

The insolvency administrator Michael Jaffé, who wants to secure money for the creditors through the proceedings, had filed the lawsuit. The verdict is not yet final. On the contrary: trial observers expect that there will be appeals.

Ex-Chairman of the Supervisory Board should not pay according to the ruling

However, Jaffé failed with one part of the claim: according to the ruling, the former Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board Stefan Klestil should not pay.

The judge also found that he had breached his supervisory duties. However, this does not lead to liability. As the Executive Board had already failed to comply with the Supervisory Board's instructions in the past, it was not certain whether measures taken by the Supervisory Board would have helped in the two cases.

On the other hand, the court found that the three members of the Executive Board were clearly responsible because the loan had not been secured and there had been no thorough financial review before the bonds were subscribed. In the case of Braun and the CFO, Krenek derived the responsibility directly from their departmental responsibilities. In the case of the product manager, he argued that she should have been suspicious.

SDA