Tag: Dietmar Knoechelmann

The Wirecard trial in Munich is expected to extend beyond the initially planned 100 days of court hearings. The court is contemplating the extension of evidence collection until February. As the trial progresses into its first extended break after 58 days, no substantial evidence has been found against the former CEO, Markus Braun, in the alleged billion-dollar fraud case of the DAX-listed company that collapsed in 2020.

The online magazine PayRate42 News reported that DPO Pay, a Dublin-based payments processor founded in 2006 by Eran Feinstein and Offer Gat, has received approval from the Bank of Tanzania to operate as a Payment Service Provider. In 2021, DPO Pay was acquired by Network International (NI), a Dubai-based payments provider, for $291.3 million. DPO Pay had interesting connections to Wirecard and the binary options scheme GreyMountain Management Ltd (GMM).

In the last days of the Wirecard trial, former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun footed his defense on merchants still considered "big players" in the porn sector. However, their business was not handled by third-party partners in Asia but by Wirecard itself or so-called "white label acquirers" from Europe with whom it had business ties. This is shown by several internal merchant lists with more than 8,000 (!) porn websites listed.

In Munich, Markus Braun, the former CEO of collapsed German fintech unicorn Wirecard, is fighting to prove his innocence to the court. Yesterday Thursday, he used a PowerPoint presentation to prove that the controversial third-party acquiring business in Asia existed. The prosecutors' crown witness Oliver Bellenhaus denied the existence of this business. The judge was skeptical; Braun could not answer important questions conclusively. Here is the FinTelegram update!

On March 4, 2010, the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office received a report with a lot of explosive power that could have an impact on the current Wirecard trial. "Criminal complaint for money laundering in the billions against Wirecard AG, Management Board Markus Braun," is the (translated) title of the new complaint, the Austrian Kurier reports. It states that Wirecard's entire business model "is based on the processing of highly profitable but illegal transactions."

VT Markets is an Australian broker scheme that also allows the onboarding of retail clients in EEA jurisdictions via offshore entities. VT Markets offers maximum leverage of 1:500. Until mid-2022, VT Markets was part of the Vantage Group and still operates with the same solution. In fact, VT Markets is a 1:1 implementation of VantageMarkets with different branding. Payabl and BridgerPay are the main payment facilitator of the scheme, which has already received regulatory warnings.

Cyprus-based high-risk payment processor Payabl has become the latest addition to the Visa Direct Preferred Partner Program, PaymentExpert reports. The membership will provide Payabl access to Visa’s tools to improve real-time payment solutions. There is an intense discussion on Twitter about the payment processor specializing in porn and gambling and its founders, Ruediger Trautmann and Dietmar Knoechelmann. The company recorded a 182% YoY growth with its high-risk merchants.

On Day 3 of the Wirecard Trial, the prosecution's key witness, Oliver Bellenhaus, is called to testify. The former director of the Wirecard business in Dubai speaks quietly and extremely quickly. He wants to get his testimony over with as quickly as possible and avoids any eye contact. In essence, he confirms what he has already said during the questioning at the public prosecutor's office. The TPA system was a big fraud, audit data was faked, and Wirecard was a cancer, Bellenhaus told the court.

In the second day of the Wirecard trial, defense attorneys delivered their opening statements. As expected, the defense attorney of former CEO Markus Braun argued that the controversial Third-Party-Acquiring (TPA) had taken place. On the other hand, the defense counsel of Oliver Bellenhaus, who is the prosecution's key witness, claimed that the TPA businessdid not exist. We are certain that the largely dirty TPA business did exist and that many illegal transactions and scams were conducted via it.

The Wirecard trial begins on 8 Dec 2022. The main question will be: Who is responsible for the scandal? Markus Braun, the founder and former CEO, Oliver Bellenhaus, managing director of Wirecard Dubai, and the former head of accounting, Stephan von Erffa have to answer critical questions! Braun and his accomplices are alleged to have operated Wirecard as a criminal organization, the indictment says. The court has scheduled 100 days of hearings. In an underground courtroom.

While former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun prepares in prison for his trial starting in December 2022, the growth of Wirecard successor Payabl is exploding. German-Cypriot high-risk payment processor Payabl was founded by former Wirecard top executives Dietmar Knoechelmann and Ruediger Trautmann. The number of website visitors exploded from around 15,000 in July to more than 306,000 in October 2022. The growth is primarily fueled by porn customers such as xHamsterlive or StripChat.

Until 2021, the Bank of Cyprus-regulated payment institution Payabl did business as PowerCash21. The high-risk payment processor founded by former Wirecard top executives Dietmar Knoechelmann and Ruediger Trautmann specializes in porn, gambling, and online trading. Among its customers is apparently also the offshore broker VT Markets as a Similarweb analysis shows. A warning was issued against VT Markets by the Spanish regulator in August 2021.