Two and a half years after the spectacular bankruptcy of the Wirecard Group, the most important protagonists meet in court.

The mammoth trial of the fraud of the century begins in the high-security hall of the Munich prison on Thursday.

Only one is missing.

Markus Braun – Mr. Wirecard

Marcus Young

Editor in Business.

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Henning Peitsmeier

Business correspondent in Munich.

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In the supposedly good years of Wirecard, Markus Braun presented himself as the revenant of Apple boss Steve Jobs.

Like this one, he liked to wear dark turtlenecks and touted the blessings of the digital future.

But for the Munich public prosecutor's office, the prisoner Braun is an ordinary crook, admittedly one who is responsible for what is probably the most spectacular fraud scandal in Germany.

The 53-year-old Austrian is said to have been the head of a criminal gang.

The investigators accuse him of fraud, breach of trust, accounting falsification and market manipulation in 26 cases.

He is said to have turned the start-up, which earned money with payment processing for the porn and gambling industry after the turn of the millennium, into a fraud company that even managed to climb into the elite segment of the German Stock Exchange in 2018.

In fact, Wirecard pushed Commerzbank out of the Dax and was at times worth more than Deutsche Bank – and Braun, who owned a good 7 percent of the shares, was a billionaire.

Braun studied business informatics in Vienna and after graduating he was hired by a management consultancy.

As a consultant, he came to the Munich fintech company that was developing a virtual credit card - the "Wire Card" - and was in financial difficulties.

There he met Jan Marsalek, who was ten years his junior and took care of the technology.

Together they took Wirecard public in 2005;

the share cost 1.30 euros.

From then on, the increase in the share price was the driving force behind Braun, which many shareholders called “Mr.

called Wirecard”.

With his increasing wealth, he gained more and more political influence in his home country.

He donated to the economic liberal party Neos in Austria, then he supported the 2017 election campaign of the ÖVP.

Braun, who is the father of a five-year-old daughter, has been in custody since the Wirecard bankruptcy.

He was transferred from the Augsburg-Gablingen prison to Stadelheim for the trial.

Braun denies all allegations against him.

Rather, he sees himself as a victim of fraud, like tens of thousands of other Wirecard shareholders.

Stephan von Erffa – The chief accountant

When Wirecard's former chief accountant gives his personal details in court on Thursday, he will give his full name: Stephan Egilmar Hartmann Freiherr von Erffa, born in Kenya in 1974, is the scion of a noble family from Thuringia.