Wirecard Sacked, Season 1: Seventh episode, The jailbreak

An investigative podcast about the Wirecard scandal in Munich's Stadelheim court

Another episode of the 'Wirecard Sacked' podcast, this season 1 is about detailed insider accounts of the proceedings in Munich's Stadelheim prison courtroom that have been going on for well over a year.

This is the seventh episode about the Wirecard trial.

Inhalt:
The Kiesewetter conspiracy (→ 01:04)
At the beginning of February, Oliver Bellenhaus was suddenly released from prison (→ 02:42)
The list of questions for Oliver Bellenhaus(→ 04:24)
The hard disks on servers in the mother's house (→ 08:04)
The preferential treatment of Mr. Bellenhaus (→ 10:42)
The insolvency of MB Beteiligungsgesellschaft (→ 13:12)

Season 1, Episode 7

Wirecard Sacked - The Court Proceeding

00:00

* Oliver Bellenhaus was of course released from Stadelheim prison in February 2024, not April 2024.

Here is the link to our article mentioned in the podcast about the Bellenhaus questionnaire in court:
The Trial - About a Wirecard release of prisoner and Franz Kafka's unfinished works

Regarding the use of the words 'Back To The Wirecard' at appr. minute 03:30, read here:
Back To The Wirecard - About the roots of the insolvent German payment provider

Previous
Episode 6 - Marsalek's Letter

Next
Episode 8 - The Confession


Transcript 

(Music) 

Wirecard Sacked, The Sun24 News Podcast, Season 1, Episode 7. 

Martin: At this time, we are talking about the end of fall, now winter 2023, this ominous procedure in London with the Bulgarians also took place. 

Jörg: That's one point, for example, where I was very satisfied with Bayerischer Rundfunk, because they kept it rather small and formulated it very carefully. That then escalated. Some people wrote something with evidence and at some point, there are also articles these days and just recently Jörg Schmitt was back with Anna Thalhammer. Jörg Schmitt, Süddeutsche Zeitung. Anna Thalhammer is, I think, Profil Österreich. They did a podcast together where they basically say that Jan Marsalek is a Russian spy. No more than the economy is. 

Martin: So I call it the conspiracy podcast. I hope that people like that will never call this podcast that. 

Jörg: What's his name? Roderich Kiesewetter. Putin destabilized the financial market with Wirecard and now you finally have to realize that you have to use Taurus missiles against Putin.... Seriously, there's the interview on ZDF, seriously, where Roderich Kiesewetter connects the Taurus missiles to Jan Marsalek. 

(Music) 

Martin: After Christmas 2023, when the Munich Security Conference started, Kiesewetter became active, where he worked out these narratives and these most obstruse connections. Putin, Jan Marsalek, Austria Braun and Wirecard have always been mentioned. We have ended up beyond any clarification that this Wirecard scandal is being unraveled here. 

Jörg: When Markus Braun's lawyer pointed out that the findings of the Austrians could possibly be used in the Wirecard case for the Wirecard trial, the public prosecutor's office intervened angrily. What it allows itself to do, question mark after question mark. We could do a podcast for three hours with question marks, but back to your point. For now, we'll just stick to the Wirecard trial. And there Marsalek was clearly a red herring. Especially every time something came up, there happened to be another Marsalek story. It's quite random.

Martin: The stories boil up and continue to do so. A little later, there was another hammering in the courtroom. At the beginning of (*February), Oliver Bellenhaus was suddenly released from prison. And he was actually walking around freely in the courtroom. 

Jörg: That was a difficult moment for me, I have to admit. You wanted to interview him. 

Martin: Yes, exactly. (quiet laughter) 

Jörg: For me, the situation was like this: they had to make Bellenhaus an offer. Because there was also this story where Bellenhaus said that I would withdraw my statement if nothing came of it. There were discussions.  I don't know exactly what happened there. The question is what happened with Bellenhaus. Do you know the story about the change in the early days? 

Martin: What? Back To The Wirecard, or something?

Jörg: On July 15 in the witness hearing, where Bellenhaus made the U-turn and suddenly says there's no business at all, the minutes at the beginning of the hearing state 8:57 AM, which is then crossed out and replaced with 9:15 AM. What happened in those 18 minutes? A mystery. We can take a look at it. Very exciting. 

(Music)

Jörg: And what was also clear was that at the beginning of the trial the question was everywhere, how credible is Bellenhaus? No media outlet raised this question and then he was released and it was interpreted as, yes of course, that shows that the court is convinced that Markus Braun is of course the sole perpetrator. That was the statement. 

Martin: There was also this list of questions that was put on ice for almost a year. At the beginning of the trial, both Erffa's lawyers and those of Markus Braun, who was still Dierlamm at the time, had written down a list of, I don't know, 60, 70, 80, 200 questions and put them directly to Oliver B., the prosecution's key witness. And these questions were, believe it or not, put on ice for more than a year, a year and two months. Bellenhaus didn't have to answer these questions and then suddenly they came out on the floor. 

Jörg: Exactly. And the point was that these questions were answered after Bellenhaus was let out. I found that very questionable. The questions were not answered. But it was discussed whether Bellenhaus had to answer questions in court. Dierlamm also got quite angry, as I read in the WiWo blog. Bellenhaus then said that not only would he not answer the defense's questions, but he would also not answer the judge's questions if he adopted the defense's questions as his own. And I think that's very questionable in terms of criminal procedure. Because it means that the only person who is demonstrably known to have falsified is not questioned confrontationally by the prosecution, the judge or the defense. And it gets even more absurd. The newspapers followed the content of the questions and thus also the direction of the doubts about Bellenhaus. And as if that wasn't enough, Födisch then said in a hearing that he didn't even know what these questions were about. And that was the moment when Judge Födisch, whom I had spared for a very long time, but I think that was the moment when I thought, are you still all right, Judge? 

Martin: I can confirm that. I was there on the day in question when these questions were asked. In other words, the day before Oliver Bellenhaus actually started answering the questions. And there was quite a scandal. I'll post it below for those who are interested. So on these days in question, it was determined how to answer these questions the following week, which Oliver Bellenhaus finally finished after more than a year. Of course, he took a miserable amount of time and he was already at large, as I said, that they were now suddenly read out. The way in which this takes place was investigated in court. And then Bellenhaus, Oliver Bellenhaus, really suggests, looks at the judge and says, by the way, I have a suggestion for next week for the reading out of my answers, this list of questions that was asked over a year ago. I would request or would like to simply skip reading out the questions and just read out the answers. And the judge looks over at Bellenhaus from his elevated judicial position, looks at him and says, oh, Mr. Bellenhaus, that's actually a good idea, we'll save ourselves a lot of time. You're really sitting in the back and you think you're going to fall off your chair again. 

Jörg: It's hard to believe what's going on. But the problem is that it doesn't get out. People don't know any of this and they don't understand the questions at all. These were very central, crucial questions, where a lot of money was at stake, where it was also a question of, is there money? Is there money that is due to injured parties, injured small investors? Olaf Scholz is still the most important group in the whole scandal. I couldn't stop. 

Martin: Maybe you can remember two or three hammer questions. I know there was something about a server at his mother's. 

Jörg: It was about three hard disks with an invoice next to them, which Wirecard paid. They can be found in the laundry room, broom cupboard, somewhere in the family home and Bellenhaus says they don't belong to him. Anyway, there's an invoice to Wirecard. That's pure coincidence. Judge says, that's fine. Public prosecutor's office says, yes, fine. Mr. Bellenhaus says there's nothing on the hard drives, they're encrypted. 

(Music)

Jörg: Anyway, Bellenhaus says they're not his hard disks and the prosecution says, well then. The defense says you have to at least try to read these hard drives, to check whether the contents are relevant. Yes, no. If not, leave them as they were.

Martin: Particularly because the defense has pointed out that there were very important e-mails on these hard drives, communications that were apparently, at least according to the defense, deleted in the broom closet, right? 

Jörg: But what is also a fact, for example, is that when Wirecard collapsed on June 18 and 19, the first thing Bellenhaus did was to switch the recovery password of what I think was an Amazon server from his Wirecard service address to his private address, in order to then completely delete this server and claim afterwards that there was nothing on it anyway.

Martin: There were even requests for him to give out this password and he somehow refused or talked around saying that he didn't know the password. He didn't know it and then they asked and then somehow five minutes later he had to announce that he had changed the password, but he didn't know the previous one. 

Jörg: So you also have to realize what Wirecard is all about. Wirecard collapsed, there was a lot of damage for the banks, but also for the many small investors, and then you have Oliver Bellenhaus sitting there, who has deleted some data, where it could possibly be explained where this money that is undoubtedly floating around belongs. In other words, there is a huge potential for injured parties and for insolvency assets and he is allowed to do everything, it seems like fool's freedom to me. He was the only one who didn't have to hand over his money, well, at some point he did have this foundation, after it finally became public after months, although it had been known for ages, he was arrested, but apart from that, his wife was allowed to keep the money, because Erffa looked at every cent, he had to calculate everything down to the last cent. And Bellenhaus is allowed to keep everything, Bellenhaus is simply allowed to walk out, hasn't even answered the questions, so there is a preference for this Mr. Bellenhaus, which for many, I'm not a criminal law expert now, but which seems unusual even for criminal law experts and which actually needs to be clarified and where the media should actually ask, yes, what's actually going on and stunned, so the whole Bellenhaus case is stunned. And who is Oliver Bellenhaus, I've known him for a while, a long while, a very long time and I don't understand it, I absolutely don't understand it. 

Martin: The topic is completely under-analyzed, I would say, to put it diplomatically. It's also exciting when I sometimes stand outside after the courtroom and catch my breath after hours of questioning witnesses, then you can see how the former key witness takes a back exit, well, you can't see that, but he takes a back exit out of the courtroom and is then supposed to be picked up by BKA people and driven away in their car. 

Jörg: So what I can say, I could say the car dummies and that it was a BMW and that the people were masked and armed, which I didn't see. I only saw the masks. 

Martin: So there must be a reason why the highest level of protection that you can probably get from the state is taking place. Well, it's a mystery to me. 

Jörg: Let's put it this way, Mr. Bellenhaus has a great gift for reporting something convincingly. He must at least have presented his threat in such a convincing way. 

Martin: He always refers to it quite appropriately as bullshit bingo. And then there were a few more developments and hammer motions from a new defense lawyer for Dr. Markus Braun, as we are now slowly entering the spring of 2024. Because we have now stumbled into the court proceedings for almost a year and a half. Witnesses from the janitor to the accountant to the head of Wirecard Bank Reiner Wexeler, to compliance people and everyone else are invited and questioned for hours. And suddenly the investment company, the Markus Braun investment company, which was used by Dr. Markus Braun to pay his horrendous, extremely high fees for his star lawyer, was suddenly insolvent. There was a certain moment of drama in one or two days and it was then determined how to proceed and then of course in a case like this, where a defendant has no more money, in this case a public defender was suddenly appointed, who is therefore paid by the state, then also by the court, is also appointed and that is a woman from, I think Erfurt, but who had also been involved since the beginning of the proceedings. She was always relatively passive most of the time, but of course fully integrated into the matter and that was of course another stroke of luck for Dr. Braun. 

Jörg: Theres Krausslach gave an interview, I don't know when, which is well worth reading. It was reported in the media that Dierlamm is now running away from his client and that is probably the final proof that now, I believe, if there are thunderstorms in Stadelheimen, then it is a sign from God that Markus Braun is guilty. It is unbelievable that every detail, no matter how abstruse, is used to say that Braun is the guilty party. So this Dierlamm action, as Födisch then asked in court, yes, Mr. Braun, do you actually have a defense and Theres Krausslach then said quite dryly, I'm here. Great moment, great moment, but as I said, of course it is bitter that the manpower of the law firm is no longer available, because you have to realize that we are talking about tens of thousands of e-mails and a horrendous amount of research, which can actually be done by a public defense and if you think further, if there are appeal proceedings or whatever, it is of course an incredible weakening. How did this weakening come about? Everything was seized from Markus Braun and in part with reasons that, in a nutshell, say he is guilty. That's where the cat bites its own tail. So if you read the justifications that Markus Braun's defense was unrealistic or unrealistic, I think the formulation was, as I said, I'll say it again, I'm the last person to say that Markus Braun is absolutely without responsibility in the case, really not. But from a purely constitutional point of view, also from a media point of view, I have several, I've been interested in justice for a long time, but I can't remember, nor do I remember historically, ever having experienced a trial like this in Germany, and God knows I'm not the only one to say that. 

Martin: Yes, I have to confirm that, it's a bottomless pit, that's how I would describe it, in the truest sense of the word. I know that back then, when Dierlamm was replaced by the new public defender, the mass media coverage of the whole story caused incredible astonishment. So, quite bluntly and bluntly, here is a money-hungry lawyer who cares the least about his client and who actually only wants his money and now there is no more money and as soon as there is no more money, he is off the floor, then he quits his job and leaves. Without considering, of course, that it's not possible at all, that it's not legally possible at all, even if Dierlamm continues to act as defense counsel for Dr. If Braun had wanted to act, it would not have been legally possible at all for it to happen without payments to him. 

Jörg: So this thing, that Dierlamm would resign, that was actually a real secret, it had actually been known for a long time, people had more or less been waiting for it and it happened a lot. So that was the case with the Dierlamm story, then there was this fudge, which of course had to be emphasized in court so that there was something to write about, I've chosen a term for it that I won't mention now, but it was always things like that or expert opinions from Erffa, how it would turn out, it was written weeks in advance, it was in the Handelsblatt, the expert opinion would say this and that, and then the day of the expert opinion came and the place was full. And I thought to myself, this is a show, then it's a show, because the information was out long ago, it was just a matter of presenting this show. 

Martin: Now it's slowly, literally opening up, the former chief accountant of Erffa, that started at the end of winter, beginning of spring 2024.

(Music)

Speaker:
Jörg - longtime Wirecard expert and investigator
Martin - Investigative lead at Sun24 News and Wirecard expert

Organization and realization:
Martin D. / Sun24 News

Wirecard Sacked, Season 1: Seventh episode, The jailbreak

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 10 - Final

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 9

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 8

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 6

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 5

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 4

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 3

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 2

Wirecard Sacked

The Court Proceeding - Season 1, Episode 1

The Wirecard Summer Gap

About extorted confessions and Bavarian radio news

Money launding is not my thing

About Commerzbank and cancelled Wirecard credit lines

Wirecard Chances

About supervisory board advising lawyers

The Wirecard PR Court

About an obscure questioning of a Wirecard lawyer

Wirecard Rogue

About crazy judiciary talks and on-target court motions

Wirecard Untangled

About unsolved issues in Germany's master finance scandal

La Vie en Wirecard

About strong Spanish financial analyses and weak French allegations

All Inside The Singapore Folder

About Wirecard book keepings an email conversations

Grand Vision Trust

A Wirecard Bank Director and Relationship Managements

Mount Interim

About a Wirecard interim-CEO on a Swiss rose mountain

Harvesting Wirecard

About Swiss roses and Wirecard bears

The PayLondon Group

About bears from London and Wirecard targetings

Mount Acronis

About a Swiss IT sponsor and Wirecard entanglements

Magic Pav

About a Wirecard whistleblower and magic law firms

The Trial

About a Wirecard release of prisoner and Franz Kafka's unfinished works

The Grand Orchestra

About Wirecard's share price and dolphins against sharks

Mount Wirecard

About Swiss Wirecard entanglements and the remains of Crypto AG

Wirecard Court Halftime

About seven months in Munich Stadelheim and the miracle of Bern

Pandora's Box

About Wirecard's IT Architectures

The Third Man

About Wirecard's interim CEO James Freis and nice shoes

Deflective Attorneys

About a five hours Wirecard indictment

Bavariacard

About a Germanic Wirecard Poker

A Munich Fraud

Wirecard and Munich's Public Prosecutor's Office

Royal Courts of Wirecard

About a Wirecard Lawsuit and Quantum Physics

Brilliant Consultants

About Wirecard's financial auditors and the chess game

Back To The Wirecard

About the roots of the insolvent German payment provider

BaFin The Thirteenth

An April 13th day at the Wirecard investigational committee