What prosecutors allege
About a year ago, prosecutors unveiled a global investigation after searches at more than 60 sites and roughly 20 arrests. The case, dubbed Operation Chargeback, has identified 44 suspects. Authorities say criminal groups harvested credit card data and enrolled victims in sham adult, dating, and other websites, and that four German payment firms allegedly handled the transactions tied to losses exceeding €300 million, cited as $334 million.
US extradition warrants tie two networks, WebOps and FSX, to more than 18 million subscriptions between 2016 and 2021, typically in small monthly amounts around €50 that were harder to spot. The warrants say the two networks operated out of the US, managed at least 1,500 websites through a web of over 500 front companies mostly located in the UK or Cyprus, and still needed payment processors - a role German firms are accused of filling. German authorities have said three networks were behind the transactions uncovered by Operation Chargeback, and Ruben Weigand had close ties to two that accounted for most of the damages, according to the US documents.
What the Koblenz court found
At the Koblenz Regional Court - the venue that received the first charges in the case - judges reviewed interview results from October involving suspects held in the US. After that, it told prosecutors that their "central hypothesis" may no longer be valid and that "significant follow-up investigations and data analysis are required for each individual transaction" to determine whether cardholders themselves entered their details or were tricked into revealing them.
Judges returned the files to prosecutors this week and will now consider releasing those in pre-trial detention, prosecutors said. A court spokeswoman added that a November trial start now appears improbable, which judges had only tentatively planned before the new information emerged.
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Who is charged and what happens next
Named in the indictment are Mirko Hüllemann - the former founder of a predecessor to Unzer - former Wirecard AG executive Brigitte Häuser-Axtner, and Ruben Weigand; he is alleged to have linked the networks to payment processors. All have denied the allegations, even as Hüllemann, Weigand and others have been detained for more than a year.
Häuser-Axtner was released in September, her lawyer said by telephone, declining further detail. Lawyers for Hüllemann and Weigand did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Why it matters for investors
Payment intermediaries are squarely in the spotlight here, but the court's push for transaction-by-transaction proof raises the bar before any trial can proceed. In plain English: the legal path just got longer and murkier, and that clouds timing and outcomes for anyone exposed to firms or sectors linked to high-risk processing and chargeback-heavy models.
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