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The Munich prosecutors’ office filed a series of charges against former Wirecard AG Chief Executive Officer Markus Braun, Germany’s Handelsblatt newspaper reported. Braun was accused of fraud, misappropriation of corporate assets, accounting fraud and market manipulation. Charges were also filed against Oliver Bellenhaus, previously a managing director of a Dubai-based Wirecard unit, and Stephan von Erffa, the former chief accountant and deputy chief financial officer.

Italian paper mills, which make everything from pizza boxes to furniture packaging, ground to a halt as Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent natural gas prices skyrocketing, the Associated Press reported. And it’s not just paper. Italian steel mills likewise turned off electric furnaces last week, and fishermen, facing a huge spikes in oil prices, stayed in port, mending nets instead of casting them. Nowhere more than in Italy, the European Union’s third-largest economy, is dependence on Russian energy taking a higher toll on industry.

The Ukrainian president’s economic adviser on Saturday played down the risks of the hryvnia devaluating further, despite the Russian invasion of the country that began on Feb. 24, Reuters reported. Oleg Ustenko told local media that Ukraine’s budget was fully funded and that the country's foreign exchange reserves of $27.5 billion would be replenished. Ukraine has secured emergency financing from the International Monetary Fund and other institutions to support its economy during the war.

Electricite de France SA forecast a deeper hit to earnings from falling nuclear output and the French government’s cap on power prices for consumers, highlighting its vulnerability to Europe’s escalating energy crisis, Bloomberg reported. EDF had already warned it would be squeezed this year, with its French atomic output dropping to a three-decade low due to reactor works. The situation has been worsened by a government decision to force EDF to sell more power at a discount and to delay part of a tariff hike for customers.

The Irish commercial court has rejected an attempt to enforce a judgment that was awarded in 2010, in a decision that one legal expert warned could have a knock-on effect for banks and other lenders, Pinsent Masons reported.

Hundreds of foreign companies have announced a partial or total withdrawal from Russia in recent weeks amid continuing fighting in Ukraine, The Bell reported. These include Apple, IKEA, McDonald’s, Microsoft, IBM, Sony, Shell, Porsche, Volkswagen, H&M, Inditex (that includes Zara, Bershka, Massimo Dutti, Pull&Bear), Procter & Gamble (that covers brands including Tide, Ferry, Pampers and Head & Shoulders), Universal, Mars, Warner and Sony Music.

It seemed a facetious question, one intended to provoke the star witness: “Do you think you are good at lying?” But it is the crucial issue at the center of what is likely to be the only trial on U.S. soil in one of the largest international kleptocracy cases in history, the looting of billions of dollars from the people of Malaysia, the New York Times reported.