Markus Braun, chairman of the board and founder of fintech Wirecard, plunged into a financial scandal, resigned on Friday with immediate effect, the company said in a statement.
This decision was taken "by mutual agreement with the supervisory board" of Wirecard, a payment service provider shaken by a fraud allegedly involving almost 2 billion euros on the balance sheet and including the company's auditors could not certify existence. The American James Freis, appointed Thursday evening member of the executive board to oversee the Compliance department, has been appointed interim president "with the sole power of representation," added the press release.
Suspicions of massive and international fraud
On the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the announcement gave a little respite to the action of the company listed on the Dax. Its decline was reduced to 36% at 11:30 am, to 25.39 euros the title, after a plunge of more than 51% at the lowest of the session, continuing the one started the day before. The Wirecard share has thus lost three-quarters of its value since Thursday morning, when the company had to postpone in extremis the presentation scheduled for the same day of its 2019 balance sheet - the fourth postponement since March.
There are indications on Friday that a large-scale fraud is taking place around Bavarian fintech. The first bank in the Philippines, BDO, which it was assumed was managing one of the suspicious receivables accounts for Wirecard, said on Friday that "Wirecard is not a customer of the bank. "
A document alleging the existence of a Wirecard account with BDO "is a forgery containing false signatures of bank agents", added the establishment in a press release obtained by AFP. BDO says it reported the matter to the Central Bank of the Philippines. Markus Braun, who founded and chaired Wirecard since its creation in 1999, as well as the other members of the executive board, are all in the crosshairs of justice. The Munich public prosecutor's office has been conducting a criminal investigation against them since June on suspicions of price manipulation.
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