Jan Marszalek is said to be involved in Russian espionage

The name of Wirecard’s fugitive former CFO appears in a court file about a spy group in Great Britain that is on trial from today.

Did Austrian Jan Marszalek finance and organize a spy ring in Great Britain? This suspicion is reinforced by new information reported by “Spiegel” on Tuesday. British court documents show that the fugitive former Wirecard CFO conspired between August 30, 2020 and February 8, 2023 “to collect information that would be directly or indirectly useful to the enemy and therefore to the interests and interests of the enemy.” State security,” the document says.

This is linked to the arrest of five people in Great Britain last week. Britain accused five people from Bulgaria of spying for Russia. The three men and two women were accused of collecting information that “may be useful to the enemy” between August 2020 and February 2023, according to the Crown Prosecution Service. They are scheduled to appear in court for a hearing today.

The path led to Marsalek

She added, “These charges come in the wake of an investigation conducted by the Counter-Terrorism Command of the Metropolitan Police.” The defendants, aged between 29 and 45 and living in Great Britain, are already accused of possessing identity documents with “unjust intent”. According to the BBC, the two men and a woman were carrying passports, identity cards, press cards and other documents from several countries, including Britain, Italy and France.

Investigators are said to have discovered another man through the suspected leader of the group – Wirecard director Marsalek, who is wanted around the world. At the time of the alleged plot, Marszalek had already disappeared from Germany.

A key figure in Wirecard

Wirecard’s former CFO and Austrian-born Marszalek is a key figure in the collapsed German payment services provider’s billion-dollar accounting scandal. The former director is said to have fled to Russia via Minsk in June 2020, shortly before Wirecard went bankrupt, with the help of former domestic intelligence agents. Its CEO Markus Braun, also an Austrian, is currently in the dock in Munich.

The whereabouts of the 43-year-old Viennese man remain unknown, the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Economics and Corruption (WKStA) in Vienna confirmed back in July. It has a certain amount of jurisdiction because Braun and Marszalek are Austrian citizens, and there may also be some victims of potential criminal acts in Austria. But suspected criminal acts are concentrated in Germany.

Bragging about Novichok led to the expulsion of diplomats

Marsalek’s boasting about secret documents related to the Novichok nerve agent also led to the suspension of a high-ranking Austrian diplomat in 2021, with a significant delay. Investigators accuse him of forwarding the documents in question.

Payment processor Wirecard collapsed in June 2020 when it was discovered €1.9 billion had disappeared from escrow accounts in Asia. Former president Markus Braun and two other former managers are on trial in Munich on charges of accounting fraud and mass fraud. They are said to have invented billions of dollars. On the other hand, Brown explains that the money was there and was taken behind his back. A letter from Marszalek caused a stir in the summer. The 43-year-old, who is internationally wanted, suddenly intervened in the operation with a letter from his lawyer to the Munich Regional Court, thus sending the first known sign that he was alive in about three years. (Ed./APA)

>> The article is from “Spiegel” (Spiegel Plus for a fee)