Wirecard’s Former Chief Accountant Denies Responsibility for Falsified Reports

• Stephan von Erffa, the former chief accountant of Wirecard, denies playing a significant role in falsifying the financial statements of the German payment processor, which collapsed four years ago.
• Von Erffa claimed in a Munich court that he acted in good faith and recorded accounting data as he received it, stating, “At no point did I know anything about falsification. I assumed it was true.”
• He attributed missing or delayed business data from Asian partners to the chaotic working methods of Oliver Bellenhaus, the head of Wirecard’s Dubai office and a co-defendant in the Wirecard case.
• Bellenhaus has testified that he provided “desired figures” from the Asian operations to Wirecard’s headquarters in Aschheim at von Erffa’s request.
• The Asian operations, managed by Jan Marsalek, who has been on the run for four years, were crucial to Wirecard’s revenue and profit. The company collapsed after it was revealed that EUR 1.9 billion allegedly held in Asian accounts was missing.

Vienna, August 19 (FFN) – Stephan von Erffa, the former chief accountant of the now-defunct German payment processor Wirecard, has denied any significant involvement in the falsification of the company’s financial statements. Speaking before the Munich Regional Court on Monday, von Erffa insisted that he acted in good faith, processing accounting records as they were presented to him. “At no point did I know anything about falsification. I assumed it was true,” von Erffa stated.

The missing or delayed business data from Wirecard’s partners in Asia was attributed by von Erffa to the disorganized working methods of Oliver Bellenhaus, who led the company’s Dubai office. Bellenhaus, a key witness and co-defendant in the case, testified that he supplied the company’s headquarters in Aschheim with “desired figures” from the Asian operations at von Erffa’s behest.

Von Erffa responded that he repeatedly requested preliminary data about Asian transactions from Bellenhaus, who assured him that the data would be provided. The operations in Asia, overseen by Jan Marsalek, originally from Vienna and now a fugitive for the past four years, were responsible for a large portion of Wirecard’s revenue and profit. The company ultimately collapsed after it was discovered that EUR 1.9 billion, supposedly held in Asian accounts, was missing.

Von Erffa stated that the fact that all three of Wirecard’s purported business partners in Asia either failed to report or submitted reports late did not surprise him. He assumed that Bellenhaus was responsible for requesting the data, and if it wasn’t initiated, nothing was received.

Details of the Wirecard Scandal