Munich - Commerzbank aroused suspicion at Wirecard
The Commerzbank discovered suspicions of money laundering in the Wirecard scandal relatively early, according to its own account. The bank suffered a damage in presumably three-digit million range, as the bank management could not find a way for an immediate termination of business relations.
According to the former risk board member Marcus Chromik, the bank identified several hundred transactions with money laundering suspicions from Wirecard in 2018 and 2019 and decided on a "soft exit" (English for "gentle exit"), to terminate the business relationships. "This cannot go on, we have to exit", described the top manager as a witness in the Munich Wirecard trial on Thursday about the decision in the Commerzbank boardroom.
The Commerzbank was the consortium leader with a loan commitment of 200 million Euro for the 15 banks that granted Wirecard a common credit facility of up to 1.75 billion Euro. In reality, the scandal-hit company had borrowed around 1.6 billion Euro according to the indictment. After the Wirecard bankruptcy in June 2020, most of the money was lost.
The prosecutor accuses the former board members and their two co-defendants of deliberately defrauding the banks to keep the deficit Wirecard company afloat. The former CEO Markus Braun denies these allegations, as do all other charges.
Chromik was the first former board member of the affected banks to testify as a witness on the 133rd trial day. Besides the decision to "exit", the bank reportedly filed several hundred money laundering reports against the long-term customer Wirecard at the beginning of 2019.
In the Commerzbank boardroom, according to Chromik, a immediate termination was also discussed. This would not have been legally possible, however. Given the fact that the Commerzbank had suspicions, a sale of the loan commitments would also not have been "trivial", Chromik stated.
Therefore, the Commerzbank decided to leave at the next possible extension of the consortium credit - but Wirecard filed for insolvency beforehand. The manager noted that the Financial Supervisory Authority (Bafin) and German justice were moving in the opposite direction at that time in the spring and were instead investigating whether Wirecard was a target of criminal machinations by stock market speculators. "Exiting from a DAX-company would have been unique in the history of the bank", Chromik said. "We didn't know if we weren't completely wrong and then standing as fools on the market."
The Commerzbank, being based in Germany, was one of the 15 banks that processed finances for Wirecard, with a loan commitment of 200 million Euro. Despite identifying several suspicious transactions related to money laundering from Wirecard in 2018 and 2019, the bank opted for a "soft exit" due to legal complexities. The services provided by Wirecard to Commerzbank resulted in potential damages in a three-digit million range. The Wirecard scandal, which involved crimes of deliberate fraud, unfolded in the heart of Bavaria, Munich.
