During the summer months of 2024, it was much the same in the brand-new, pleasantly cool courtroom of Munich's Stadelheim Prison, built deep into the ground. As the intense spring sun slowly turned into a scorching summer heat, things began to be hot already in May 2024, especially for Wirecard's former Chief Accountant von Erffa.

On May 2, 2024, at the conclusion of the testimony of Maria Lacruz-Muniz, defense attorneys for von Erffa's filed a motion to have the public be excluded from the testimony of an autism specialist a few days later. Von Erffa was diagnosed with ADHD in his childhood, a psychological expert is regularly in court questioning witnesses about Erffa's behavior. The request to exclude the public was denied and after months of mostly empty press seats, the hearing on June 6 was filled to the last seat with journalists and other members of the press - almost like in a push button manner.

In the run-up to the trial, mass media reporters had done much less to find out the interesting details of the witness hearings, but rather emphasized months ago already that "the pressure is now on Wirecard's former chief accountant", who "is expected to confess". At the end of April, Rainer Wexeler, Wirecard's all-important head of banking, was intensively and meaningfully questioned in court in front of mostly empty press chairs, followed by accountants and others from von Erffa's immediate working environment. This, of course, was also barely mentioned by mass media representatives.

Von Erffa hinted already in early May during the questioning of a French financial analyst working under IT Chief Susanne Steidl how he would view the upcoming appearance of the Loch Ness monster, which all mass media reporters either missed or ignored - especially those from Munich. On May 2, 2024, when it was for the very French witness to explain exactly how he came to describe von Erffa in his written testimony from a few years ago as, quote, "sexist and choleric", Frederick Huber elegantly disappeared into the depths like the creature from Loch Ness with a "Not with me, we had discussed a lot with others during the insolvency period and commented on press articles" (!). Von Erffa responded quietly, but clearly recognizably with his arms and head raising into the sky.

In order to submerge von Erffa's cry for help from high heavens back into the darkest depths, none other than the press spokesman of the Munich Regional Court apparently become very active. After literally months of empty press chairs, the courtroom, as mentioned, was more than filled with mass media journalists from several nations a few days later for the presentations of the aforementioned autism expert.

A significant proportion of the general public remains unaware of the role of court and prosecutorial press spokespersons, who exert a considerable influence on public opinion. To obtain information from the judiciary, it is necessary to contact the press spokespersons, who maintain lists and distribute newsletters-like circulars to authorized journalists at the end of the week. Additionally, crucial information is disseminated in advance, of course only exclusively to a vetted group of press representatives. Any written line that causes disfavor among these judiciary press spokespersons can result in immediate removal from their distribution lists. This may be a contributing factor to the author of this article no longer receiving any Bavarian judicial information after a few initial weeks after the start of the court procedures in December 2022. It is evident that the current press spokesperson of the Munich Regional Court is the individual capable of, and most likely responsible for, the sudden influx of press individuals into the courtroom on May 6, 2024, ready to listen to the autism expert opinion. The press spokesperson, by the way, was present in the courtroom that day after months of absence as well.

In order to finally capture Nessi, the Bavarian radio news were also regularly activated from the end of May 2024 on for some mysterious reason. In fact, other radio stations and even German TV news tuned in on the upcoming issues surrounding Wirecard's former Chief Accountant as well.

Things became extremely bizarre on June 5, 2024, when the court went into hiding behind closed doors with the former chief accountant and his defence lawyers, only to read out in court later that day at breakneck speed and in Loch Ness narrative style what had been discussed in the dark shortly before: von Erffa had been promised six to eight years in prison many weeks before his highly anticipated court testimony - this "depending on a valuable confession", according to the presiding judge. The threat probably ocurred also in view of a number of pretty bombastic motions for evidence filed in court on the exact same early June day by Dr. Braun's defense:


Some days into June 2024, things became quite intense. On the 19th, a lawyer from Gibson Dunn was questioned, who was responsible for the legal matters of Wirecard's important ad hoc announcements from April and May 2020 as part of KPMG's special audit. Extremely crucial interrogations of Commerzbank employees followed, which gave prove that the FIU had indeed been informed of money laundering transactions at an early stage; some of which were promptly passed on from there to Bavaria's Regional Criminal Police LKA. A lawyer from Clifford Chance was questioned on July 3, 2024, where important statements concerning Wirecard's supervisory board and its chairman were mentioned. All of this happened while most mass media outlets continued to deny reality itself and instead repeatedly emphasized that the "confessions of former Chief Accountant von Erffa" would soon begin.

Of course, the statements of Dr. Braun's defence from a motion for evidence, slowly read out in court in the first week of July, were almost entirely ignored by the mass media. In it, the "misrepresentations and obfuscations of the defendant Bellenhaus" were exposed, Bellenhaus "overwhelmed the court with countless false information", according to Dr. Braun's defence lawyer. The term "bullshit bingo", invented by Bellenhaus himself, was certainly applicable to the answers to a list of questions that von Erffa and Dr. Braun's defence lawyers had given to the prosecution's key witness a good year ago, Bellenhaus "faked to be the enlightener, but instead obfuscated matters". According to Dr. Braun's defence lawyer, he "had the biggest memory gaps when it came to the payments of around 340 million euros from an account of Firstline, CQR Services and the third-party partner PayEasy to Pittodrie Finance". Bellenhaus deliberately did not want to know who transferred these payments to Pittodrie, nor what the reason for them were, according to Dr. Braun's defence.


In mid July 2024, the time had come for Wirecard's former Chief Accountant. Von Erffa presented his written statements on a total of three trial days. However, what he said was not at all reminiscent of a confession to truly neutral court observers, but rather of contributions to a further clarification of the scandal. One of the most interesting explanations was probably the former chief accountant's statement on 22 July 2024, in which von Erffa explained, among other things, that a then brand-new Munich hotel, in which he had allegedly "falsified invoices" according to the statements of the prosecutorial crown witness Bellenhaus, had only been opened for business after(!) the invoice calendar dates.


In his statements, von Erffa also explained that he had voluntarily presented himself to Senior Public Prosecutor Hildegard Baumler-Hösl, Senior Public Prosecutor Buehring, and a senior police inspector on June 25, 2020 in the offices of the Munich's public prosecutors. At that time, he had already prepared a description of the third-party partner model for his lawyer and explained its accounting on the basis of various TPA financial statements; von Erffa had submitted copies of statements and balance confirmations to Munich's public prosecutors on June 25 already. However, two days later, his home was raided and paperwork confiscated - a total of six police officers knocked at his door at home on June 27, 2020. The chief accountant went on to explain, quote, "I handed over all my electronic devices with passwords. I was then arrested and taken away in front of my wife and children. That was an enormous, traumatic shock for the entire family".

After a judicial summer break of approx. 3 weeks, the Wirecard judge began his cross-examination of the former Chief Accountant at the beginning of August. Some court observers left the courtroom already before the lunch break in protest, following hours of some wild and bizarre questionings conducted by Munich's presiding Wirecard court master.


The months-long Wirecard summer gap indeed revealed a huge monster that, closely intertwined with mass media journalists and judicial officials, selectively and deliberately slanders and accuses people, degrades them for years, ignores them, and more or less arbitrarily excludes them from society. It is time to finally capture this monster, hollow it out and present it to the public in a museum as a relic of bygone barbaric times - as a reminder to never ever let this happen again.