Germany has arrested Markus Braun, the former CEO of Wirecard, after $2.1 billion went missing from the digital payments company.
On Tuesday, Munich prosecutors confirmed Braun’s arrest on suspicion of potentially inflating Wirecard’s balance sheet and sales through fictitious transactions with third parties, in an attempt to enhance the company’s appeal to investors and clients.
Wirecard admitted on Monday that €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) in missing funds, accounting for about 25% of its assets, likely never existed in the first place. The company retracted its preliminary results for 2019, the first quarter of 2020, and its 2020 profit forecast.
Braun resigned as CEO on Friday, June 19, implying that the company might have fallen victim to a substantial fraud.
Established in 1999, Wirecard was once touted as one of the most promising tech companies in Europe. It specializes in processing payments for consumers and businesses, as well as offering data analytics services. The company has a workforce of nearly 6,000 spread across 26 countries.