Disclaimer: We have started our Wirecard Forensic series in light of the upcoming trial of Wirecard founder and CEO Markus Braun et al. We are convinced that much of the Wirecard debacle has not yet been disclosed. To this day, former Wirecard managers Ruediger Trautmann and Dietmar Knoechelmann operate the German-Cypriot Payabl Group, a high-risk payment processor based on the Wirecard business model. Both managers were instrumental in Wirecard‘s rise to a high-risk juggernaut for almost a decade and made a fortune by selling their companies to Wirecard.
In 2007, Dietmar Knoechelmann and Ruediger Trautmann, who were Wirecard executives at the time, established the prepaid card provider Krores in Dublin, Ireland. In addition to their executive functions at Wirecard, both also took on the job of directors in the Krores Group. Conveniently, the Ireland office was located in the same building as Wirecard UK and Ireland Limited, Ulysses House. Krores was reportedly sold to a listed German bank sometime around 2010.
Key Data
| Trading names | Krores Braandz |
| Business activity | Prepaid and gift card |
| Legal entities | Krores Limited, Ireland Krores UK Limited (Frantazzle Europe Limited), UK Krores, LLC, U.S. Krores Cards Inc., Phillipines |
| Domains | www.krores.com www.braandz.com |
| Related individuals | Dietmar Knoechelmann Ruediger Trautmann Andy Quinn Vineet Katial |
| Related schemes | Wirecard |
An Off-The-Books Wirecard Scheme
Besides its Irish entity, the Krores Group established Krores UK Limited in the UK, Kores LLC in U.S., and Krores Cards Private Limited in India. According to information available, Krores focused its offering on emerging markets such as India.
In addition to Dietmar Knoechelmann, Wirecard manager Andy Quinn was also an executive at Krores. Vineet Katial, who established the Krores units in India and the U.S. and served as CEO, also played a key role.
We believe that Trautmann and Knoechelmann remain closely affiliated with Wirecard, and that Wirecard acquired the operations of Krores, a prepaid card issuer, from Trautmann and Knöchelmann. Evidence suggests that prior to Krores being acquired by Wirecard, that it was an ‘off-the-books’ group of companies for Wirecard, viz. shared address, officer ownership, officer overlap.
Zatarra Report
In 2008, Krores launched Visa and MasterCard prepaid (remittance) cards designed for Middle East-based migrant workers who want to transfer funds to their families in India and the Philippines. The scheme had also locations in Dubai, Canada , Australia and Germany .
Read our report about the Wirecard beginnings here.
Vanished Or Rebranded
Sometime between late 2021 and mid-2022, the prepaid card provider Krores disappeared from the web. Today, the website presents a software development company in India. One can find the Braandz gift card app in the Apple App Store that is supposedly sold by Krores LLC in Michigan. The Braandz website, on the other hand, gives Brentwood Hospitality Inc as the operator. We can assume that these are companies of Vineet Katial and Braandz is a successor brand of Krores.
Share Information
If you have any information about Krores, Wirecard or their activities, please let us know via our whistleblower system, Whistle42.
