Top manager of German payment provider Wirecard flees to Russia
Jan Marsalek, the former management board member of the German payment operator Wirecard AG, which “lost” almost 2 billion euros, allegedly fled to Russia. He is now west of Moscow under the supervision of employees of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service of the General Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, also known as GRU, writes the German newspaper Handelsblatt, citing sources in business, judicial and diplomatic circles.
According to the newspaper, before his disappearance, Marsalek allegedly transferred to Russia significant amounts in bitcoins from Dubai, where Wirecard conducted dubious transactions.
Earlier, the journalists from Der Spiegel together with the Russian online publication “The Insider” and the investigative group Bellingcat came to the conclusion that Marsalek could be in Belarus, where he arrived from Tallinn on board a private Embraer Legacy 650 jet. At the same time, Handelsblatt believes that because of the "political conflict" between the Russian leadership and the Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko, it was probably "too risky" for Russian special services to leave Marsalek in Belarus.
However, the German newspaper does not specify how the former German top manager got to Russia, when he did it and what is his current status in the territory of the Russian Federation. Handelsblatt also does not disclose where it received the information.
Handelsblatt clarifies that during his frequent trips to Russia Marsalek used all his six passports to enter Russia on various trips.
Der Spiegel also does not rule out that the former chief operating officer of Wirecard could also travel from Belarus to Russia, which he has visited many times before. According to the magazine, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has shown such interest in Marsalek that it was tracking his movements around the world, using booking data, starting at the latest since 2015.
According to the investigation, the management of the Wirecard group reported 1.9 billion euros in assets from non-existent bank accounts - almost a quarter of the company's balance sheet. The scandal erupted after the auditors found out that the funds were missing. At the end of June, investigators in Germany and other countries became interested in Wirecard's fraudulent operations, which had been falsifying reporting for years. The long-term CEO, Austrian Markus Braun, was charged, arrested and released on bail. After the company's shares collapsed, it declared bankruptcy.
Board member Jan Marsalek, considered a key part of the fraudulent scheme, disappeared without a trace. The Financial Times wrote that in the circles of London bankers he repeatedly boasted of connections in the Austrian secret services and knowledge of the formula of poison "Novichok", as well as other details of poisoning of Sergey and Julia Skripal in the UK.