Ex-Wirecard CEO freed on bail

German prosecutors said Wirecard's ex-chief executive officer (CEO) Markus Braun was granted bail on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) following his arrest on suspicions of fraud after 1.9 billion euros ($2.1 billion) went missing from the payment provider's accounts.

Prosecutors in Munich said Austrian- born Braun, who resigned as CEO on Friday, June 19, turned himself in on Monday evening, June 22, after an arrest warrant was issued.

A judge in Munich ordered him to be released on bail for 5 million euros, the prosecutors said in a statement. Braun must also report to police each week.

Prosecutors accuse Braun of false accounting and market manipulation in connection with the scandal, which is fast turning into one of Germany's biggest financial frauds.

They believe Braun artificially "inflated" the company's assets and revenues through "fake transactions with so-called third party acquirers in order to make the company seem financially stronger and more attractive to investors and customers."

Braun may have acted "with other perpetrators," they added. Braun joined Wirecard in 2002.

He oversaw the Bavarian startup's global expansion and its much trumpeted entry into Frankfurt's prestigious DAX 30 index in 2018, when Wirecard edged out traditional lender Commerzbank.

Wirecard, which was founded in 1999 and started out processing payments for porn and gambling websites, was long seen as a rising star in the fintech sector thanks to the growing popularity of digital payments.

But the company has been dogged by reports of accounting irregularities in its Asian division, notably in a series of articles in the Financial Times since January 2019.