Markus Braun (entrepreneur)

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Markus Braun (2018)

Markus Braun (born November 5, 1969 in Vienna ) was CEO of Wirecard from January 2002 to June 2020 ; he also owns shares in the company. On July 22, 2020, Braun was arrested along with two former Wirecard managers on suspicion of gang fraud and falsification of business balance sheets since at least 2015. An arrest warrant was issued against her.

Origin and education

Markus Braun is the son of a community college director and a school teacher . He completed his studies in business informatics at the University of Vienna in 1995 and received his doctorate in social and economic sciences in 2000 . He has Austrian citizenship.

Professional background

Braun began his career as a consultant at Contrast Management Consulting GmbH and stayed in this position until November 1998. From 1998 to 2001 he worked for KPMG Germany in Munich .

Braun has more than 15 years of experience in the field of digital payments and has been a regular speaker at industry-related events as well as in various national and international media.

Wirecard

In 2002 Braun joined the Management Board of Wirecard AG as CEO and CTO and was reappointed as CEO in 2017 until December 31, 2020. Until June 24, 2020, he owned more than eight percent of Wirecard's shares, making him the largest single shareholder in Wirecard. His shares were worth over 1.6 billion euros in September 2018. Through sales on June 24, 2020, it reduced its share to around 2.5 percent. On June 24, 2020, these shares still had a market value of approx. 50 million euros.

Suspicion of market manipulation at Wirecard

At the beginning of June 2020, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) filed a complaint against Braun and his colleagues on the Executive Board because of misleading statements in two mandatory communications from Wirecard.

On June 18, 2020, the Wirecard share fell over 70% in some cases due to suspected fraud, lack of transparency and other uncertainties, after auditors refused to approve the annual report due to a lack of evidence. On June 19, 2020, Braun resigned as CEO of Wirecard.

After Wirecard announced on June 22, 2020 that the balance sheet of € 1.9 billion did not exist with "overwhelming probability", the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) filed several reports against Markus Braun and three others on suspicion of market manipulation Board members of Wirecard and had the company's premises searched. On the same day, an arrest warrant was applied for and issued against Braun on suspicion of market manipulation and falsification of accounts.

Braun surrendered to the Munich public prosecutor's office on the evening of June 22, 2020 and was arrested. The following day, June 23, 2020, he was released on bail of five million euros.

On the evening of June 30, 2020, Braun was dismissed from the Wirecard AG Supervisory Board.

On July 22, 2020, he was arrested again on an extended arrest warrant.

Advisory functions

Braun advised Deutsche Bank as an advisory board member , particularly on issues relating to digital banking. Since 2017 he has been a member of the "Staff Unit for Strategy, Analysis and Planning" (also called Think Austria ) of the Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, which was set up in the Federal Chancellery after Kurz I took office. After the dissolution of this government, the body was dissolved by the Bundesregierung Bierlein , but continued again after the National Council election in Austria in 2019 under the Federal Government Kurz II . While Antonella Mei-Pochtler , the head of the staff unit, named him as one of the experts involved in January 2020, a spokesman for the Federal Chancellery said after the start of the investigation into falsified accounts that Braun had not worked in the staff unit since the government took office. Kurz also publicly distanced himself from Braun on June 23, 2020.

Party donations

From 2014 to 2016, Braun donated a total of 125,000 euros to NEOS, according to the party's annual reports . In the election campaign for the National Council election in Austria 2017 , the Austrian People's Party , which had recently been taken over by Sebastian Kurz, received a total of 70,000 euros in two tranches, and Braun publicly appeared as a supporter of Kurz.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Markus Braun ( Memento from October 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Henning Peitsmeier, Tillmann Neuscheler: The Wirecard case: With corps spirit and oaths of loyalty . In: FAZ.NET. July 22, 2020, accessed July 22, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Ex-Wirecard boss arrested again. In: Manager Magazin . July 22, 2020, accessed July 23, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Georg Meck: Alone against the speculators . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung , February 23, 2020.
  5. ↑ Markus Braun: Usage profile of the business IT specialist . Vienna 1995 ( univie.ac.at ).
  6. ↑ a b c Management: WIRECARD. Wirecard, accessed on December 9, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b Michael Balder: An Austrian as a fintech billionaire. Courier, September 9, 2018, accessed December 9, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Peter Brors, Daniel Schäfer and Christian Schnell: How the Wirecard boss wants to achieve a market value of 100 billion euros. Handelsblatt, October 3, 2018, accessed on December 9, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Danielle Sabrina: Corporate America Has Lost Control Of Your Wallet, Thanks To These Innovators. Huffington Post, December 6, 2017, accessed December 9, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Patrick Bernauer: Wirecard: "Our balance sheets are completely in order". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, July 5, 2008, accessed on December 9, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Julia Schmitt: CFO Burkhard Ley is leaving Wirecard. In: Finance Magazin. July 12, 2017. Retrieved December 9, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Wirecard AG: Release according to Article 40, Section 1 of the WpHG with the aim of Europe-wide distribution. German Society for Ad-hoc Publicity , June 24, 2020, accessed on June 27, 2020 .
  13. ↑ a b Former Wirecard boss: Braun had to sell most of its shares . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed June 24, 2020]).
  14. ↑ Wirecard AG: Release according to Article 40, Section 1 of the WpHG with the aim of Europe-wide distribution. German Society for Ad-hoc Publicity , June 24, 2020, accessed on June 27, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Wirecard share dossier. In: Finances100. Retrieved June 24, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Extended display by Bafin: Customers are turning away from Wirecard . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed June 24, 2020]).
  17. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Wirecard boss Braun resigns with immediate effect - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. Retrieved June 19, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Customers are turning away from wirecard. In: www.faz.net. June 24, 2020, accessed June 24, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Tim Bartz, DER SPIEGEL: Public prosecutor searches Wirecard headquarters - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. Retrieved June 5, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Extended display by Bafin: Customers are turning away from Wirecard . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed June 24, 2020]).
  21. ↑ a b Ex-Wirecard boss Braun arrested . heise.de. June 23, 2020. Accessed June 23, 2020.
  22. ↑ Klaus Ott, Jörg Schmitt: Wirecard: Markus Braun is released on bail. Süddeutsche Zeitung, accessed on June 24, 2020 .
  23. ↑ DER SPIEGEL: Public prosecutor's office arrests ex-Wirecard boss Braun - DER SPIEGEL - Economy. Retrieved June 24, 2020 .
  24. ↑ Marcus Jung: What Markus Braun threatens now . faz.net. June 23, 2020. Accessed June 23, 2020.
  25. ↑ Wirecard scandal: Ex-CEO Braun at large against a million-dollar bail . heise.de. June 23, 2020. Accessed June 23, 2020.
  26. ↑ Message detail | Wirecard. Retrieved July 8, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Former Wirecard boss Braun arrested again . faz.net. July 22, 2020. Accessed July 22, 2020.
  28. ↑ ORF at / agencies red: Wirecard scandal: Ex-boss Braun is released on bail. June 23, 2020, accessed June 25, 2020 .
  29. ^ Salzburger Nachrichten: Ex-Wirecard boss in Austria is politically well connected. Retrieved June 25, 2020 .
  30. ↑ Michael Jungwirth: Federal Chancellor Kurz keeps his distance from Markus Braun. kleine Zeitung.at, June 23, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Braun, Markus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian tech investor and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH 5th November 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria