Good morning. German prosecutors said they had charged Wirecard AG’s former chief executive, Markus Braun, and two other former senior executives with suspected market manipulation and false representation of the company’s financial accounts.

The prosecutors said they suspected that Mr. Braun, referred to as Dr. B., signed off financial statements for the years 2015 to 2018 even though he knew them to be incorrect, according to a statement published Monday. Two other suspects supported him in this project, the prosecutors said.

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The charges represent a culmination of nearly two years of work by prosecutors to stitch together details of a financial fraud that rocked Germany. The Munich-based payments processor once listed on Germany’s DAX index filed for insolvency in June 2020, days after stating that 1.9 billion euros, the equivalent of around $2.1 billion, it booked in its accounts likely never existed.

Wirecard’s collapse was a black eye for Germany’s financial regulators, which dismissed a decade of warnings and later admitted that staff traded shares in the company while overseeing it.

A law firm representing Mr. Braun said it rejected the charges in full, adding that the indictment painted a false picture of his client and suffered from serious deficiencies.

Don’t miss the WSJ Risk & Compliance Forum on May 10, where discussion topics will include priorities in white-collar crime enforcement, working across the C-suite, reporting on sustainability and M&A risk. We’re also offering workshops on risk measurement and reporting and third-party cybersecurity risk. You can register here.

Swedbank a ‘suspect’ in Estonian probe. Swedbank AB said its Estonian unit has been named a suspect in an Estonian money-laundering investigation.

A special white-collar crime investigator with Estonia’s Central Criminal Police notified the bank that Swedbank AS, its Estonian subsidiary, has been summoned as a “suspect to an interrogation,” Swedbank said in a statement released Monday. Estonian investigators are probing whether the Stockholm-based financial institution was involved in money-laundering and other criminal violations.

Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. expanded the role of Chief Compliance officer Paul C. Harris to include oversight of the company’s environmental, social and governance program.

As chief sustainability officer, Mr. Harris will manage “ongoing efforts to formalize and mature” the military shipbuilder’s ESG efforts and will report to President and Chief Executive Chris Kastner, HII said.

Mr. Harris has served as chief compliance officer for HII since September 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile. Before that he was a senior vice president at Hampton University, and worked in compliance roles at companies including Sodexo SA and Northrop Grumman Corp.

—David Smagalla

Tencent faces possible fine for anti-money-laundering violations. Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. is facing a potential record fine for violations of some central bank regulations by its WeChat Pay mobile network, as Beijing toughens its regulations for fintech platforms, according to people familiar with the matter.

Financial regulators recently discovered that WeChat Pay had flouted China’s anti-money-laundering rules and had lapses in compliance with “know your customer” and “know your business” regulations, among other things, some of the people said. Tencent’s ubiquitous mobile payments network was also found to have allowed the transfer and laundering of funds with illicit transactions such as gambling, the people added.

For WeChat Pay, “know your customer” and “know your business” procedures mean it must verify the identities of users and merchants transacting on its platform and the source of funds for those transactions.

Talks to end Ukraine war pause as Russia’s offensive intensifies. Diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine showed no signs of progress on Monday as fighting for the capital intensified, with Russian missiles destroying an aircraft factory and an apartment building in Kyiv and a television tower in the western city of Rivne.

A steady thud of artillery fire echoed through downtown Kyiv Monday while Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met by video. U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan also pressed a top Chinese official over Beijing’s alignment with Moscow during what U.S. officials said was an intense, seven-hour meeting in Rome on Monday.

• Read more: Ukraine’s President to Address U.S. Congress Virtually
• Polish, Czech and Slovenian Leaders Head to Kyiv to Meet Zelensky
• EU Approves New Russia Sanctions Package as Divisions Emerge

Investors dial up pressure over companies’ climate lobbying. Companies are coming under pressure to show that their public support for climate action isn’t being undermined by their behind-the-scenes lobbying.

On Monday, investors representing more than $130 trillion published a new standard for climate-related corporate lobbying, covering public commitments, governance, actions and disclosures.

China’s Covid-19 surge shuts down plants in manufacturing hubs. A surge in Covid-19 cases led Chinese manufacturing hubs Shenzhen and Changchun to lock down in recent days, halting production at many electronics and auto factories in the latest threat to the world’s battered supply chain.

A number of manufacturers including Foxconn Technology Group, a major assembler of Apple Inc.’s iPhones, said they were halting operations in Shenzhen in compliance with the local government’s policy.

• Read more: Lockdowns Spread Across China as Race to Contain Covid-19 Outbreak Intensifies

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