German public prosecutor brings charges against ex-Wirecard CFO

BERLIN, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Munich said on Thursday they have brought charges against another former Wirecard board member, long-time chief financial officer Burkhard Ley.

Wirecard collapsed in June 2020 over a 1.9-billion-euro ($2.08 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.

Prosecutors accuse Ley of market manipulation, commercial and organised fraud, and breach of trust, among other things.

As CFO, and later as an adviser to the board, Ley, together with ex-Wirecard boss Markus Braun and other top managers, manipulated sales by helping to fabricate the alleged billion-dollar business with third-party customers in Asia, according to the prosecutors.

They said the incorrect figures were intended to drive up the price of Wirecard shares, while the manipulated annual financial statements served to raise money from banks. In total, the damage amounted to several hundred million euros.

Ley's lawyers rejected the accusations as unfounded and said he had left the company before the main events of the scandal unfolded.

He then received a "strategic consultancy contract", which had nothing to do with the operational processes at Wirecard, Ley's lawyer Norbert Scharf told Reuters on Thursday.

If the Munich Regional Court accepts the charges, Ley would be the fourth ex-Wirecard executive to have to face trial.

Whereabouts of former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, who was responsible for the Asian business, are unknown, while former boss Braun and two other ex-managers are on trial for falsifying accounts and organised fraud.

They were accused of conspiring to invent vast sums of phantom revenues through bogus transactions with partner companies to mislead creditors and investors.

Braun has denied any wrongdoing, accusing other managers of scheming behind his back. ($1 = 0.9148 euros) (Reporting by Christina Amann and Alexander Huebner, Writing by Linda Pasquini Editing by Miranda Murray and Tomasz Janowski)