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MUNICH (Reuters) – German prosecutors have charged another two former Wirecard executives, according to a statement from their Munich office on Tuesday, casting their net wider in investigations into one of Germany’s biggest corporate scandals.
Wirecard collapsed in June 2020 over a 1.9 billion euro ($2.1 billion) hole in its balance sheet, shaking up Germany’s business establishment and turning the spotlight on politicians who backed it as well as regulators who took years to investigate allegations against the firm.
Alexander von Knoop, who served as finance chief of the now-defunct online payments company, and Susanne Steidl, its board member for product development, have now been charged with several counts of embezzlement, the state prosecutor’s office said.
Von Knoop has also been charged with aiding and abetting embezzlement, it added in a statement.
The two former executives allegedly waved through loans and other payments even when some were in arrears on interest and repayment was questionable, according to prosecutors.
“Wirecard AG suffered losses of several hundred million euros as a result of all these breaches of trust,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The law firm representing Steidl had no comment on the charges. Von Knoop did not respond to attempts to reach him by telephone. He previously told a parliamentary committee of enquiry that he had known nothing about criminal activities.
Von Knoop and Steidl join other managers facing legal action over the scandal.
CEO Markus Braun, deputy finance chief Stephan von Erffa and Wirecard’s Asia representative Oliver Bellenhaus are currently on trial in Munich for alleged fraud and falsifying financial statements.
A decision is pending on whether von Knoop and Steidl will stand trial.
($1 = 0.9166 euros)
(Reporting by Alexander Huebner and Joern Poltz in Munich, Writing by Rachel More, Editing by Miranda Murray and Jan Harvey)
