The Viennese in German service turned the Ferris wheel as CEO, chief technology officer and major shareholder of Wirecard. In 2018, the group climbed to the DAX and newspapers celebrated Braun as climber of the year. Two years later, the Munich payment service provider went bankrupt – and Braun has been in prison ever since.
Illustration Charlotte Eckstein / NZZ
Rarely has a crash been more abrupt, a move more spectacular: in a few weeks, Markus Braun went from being a darling on the stock exchange to an outcast of the financial world and had to move out of his cottage in Kitzbühel, which cost millions, to a prison cell at the Augsburg-Gabblingen correctional facility. The former manager has been in custody for nearly two and a half years. Since then, several prison complaints have been dismissed. The trial at the Munich I district court against the former CEO of insolvent financial services provider Wirecard starts on Thursday.