The Wirecard affair
Jan Marsalek, Austrian manager and erstwhile operational manager of German company Wirecard, played a key function in an electronic payment service company in which he has worked since 2010.
Wirecard collapsed in 2020 following the disclosure of 1 of the largest financial scandals in Europe.In June of the same year, it was shown that the company's balance sheet lacked EUR 1.9 billion, which was to be on Asian bank accounts.
After the explosion, Marsalek was released, then disappeared, and investigations pointed to his ties to Russia. He is presently wanted by global law enforcement agencies, including Interpol.
Journalistic investigation
Journalism investigation conducted by the editorial offices “Spiegel”, ZDF, Austrian “Standard”, American PBS “Frontline” and Russian portal “The Insider” showed that Jan Marsalek lives in Moscow. According to the findings, all morning it passes through the Łubianka metro gates, located in the immediate vicinity of the office of the national safety Service of Russia. This is confirmed by the surveillance footage and the login data of his phone.
Journalists besides obtained photographs showing that Marsalek during working hours appears around the FSB building, dressed in elegant outfits, suggesting that he can work as an agent there. It was besides established that it uses at least six identities, using, among others, false Belgian and Russian documents, and besides twice utilized the identity papers of Russian clergymen with akin appearance.
Investigative journalists besides discovered his account on the Telegram platform, registered to a telephone number owned by Alexander Nelidov, under whose name he performed. An effort to contact this number ended with an answer in Russian, indicating a mistake.
Next, the individual claiming to be Nelidowa received another message asking about the subject of the conversation. In consequence to a question concerning the 2 journalists Marsalek was expected to spy on for the FSB, he limited himself to stating that they were “very interesting figures”. Further attempts at contact failed.
Fight on the Front
According to the information “The Insider”, Marsalek visited Crimea many times, and data from the logins of his telephone and the Russian border defender confirm that in November 2023 he was besides present at the front in occupied Mariupolu, accompanied by Russian peculiar forces. Journalists besides gained a photograph on which Marsalek is dressed in Russian military uniform with the symbol ‘Z’, a sign of support for Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
Despite the global BOLO, the German authorities were incapable to find him and sought aid from Russia. The missing EUR 1.9 billion from Wirecard has not yet been found. any of these measures were to go to Moscow, where Marsalek uses the services of the Transcapitalbank, an institution subject to US sanctions for supporting the Russian war machine. Marsalek remains elusive to European services, and the Russian authorities officially deny that they have cognition of his stay.
