The former CEO of Wirecard, a German financial technology company, was arrested by Munich police after being accused of distorting the company's sales.

As   Reuters and others have reported, Markus Braun, who ran the business for much of the past two decades, was arrested by police in Munich, Germany. According to a statement issued by the prosecution, he is accused of having conspired to inflate assets and total income by false transactions with "third-party buyers". This was done to make the business more attractive to investors, according to prosecutors.

The denatured funds in question, amounting to 1.9 billion euros, or 2.1 billion dollars, are said to be held in a trust account at two unspecified banks in the Philippines. Between June 21 and June 22, Wirecard's board of directors issued a statement saying that "with a high degree of probability", the funds did not exist. 

Silver represents more than 32% of Wirecard's claimed assets of 5.8 billion euros ($ 6.5 billion). Since the problem was finally revealed last week, Braun has resigned from his role.

A judge should decide to continue the detention today.

A company in distress

The budget hole and the ongoing turmoil raise questions about whether the business will be able to recover and survive in the long term. As PassionCrypto previously mentioned, Wirecard is the main issuer of many cryptographic debit card companies, such as Crypto.com and the Wirex offering in Asia-Pacific.

Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek noted that his debit cards are fully pre-funded and that the reserves are held in a separate British bank from Wirecard.

Meanwhile, Wirecard's share price dropped about 84% to $ 16 when the news became known.

The company's longer-term fate remains unknown, but the cards issued by Wirecard continue to function normally until now.