Disappeared with €2 bln: Top manager who fled Germany worked for Russia
Jan Marsalek (photo: spiegel.de)
Jan Marsalek, a top manager of the Wirecard payment company, is believed by Western intelligence services to be a Russian intelligence agent, states Wall Street Journal.
In 2020, the German payment company Wirecard declared bankruptcy. It turned out that 1.9 billion euros disappeared from its accounts. At the same time, Marsalek disappeared. He flew by private jet from Austria to Belarus and then to Russia, where he now lives under a different name and the protection of the FSB.
Marsalek used the company to illegally help the Main Directorate of the Russian General Staff and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service transfer money to finance covert operations around the world. Marsalek is also accused of helping the Wagner PMC.
The Wirecard bankruptcy was one of the most high-profile economic scandals in German history over the past 80 years. The former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her then deputy and head of the Ministry of Finance Olaf Scholz were witnesses in the parliamentary investigation of the case and testified.
The head of Wirecard is in prison in Germany, but Marsalek managed to escape the country. Later it turned out that he was assisted by the special services. German justice demands Marsalek's extradition, but Russia refuses.
Marsalek's activities
Earlier we wrote that Marsalek was suspected of spying on the UK. He helped the Russian special services.
