Wirecard: Why would Russia hide a fugitive fintech exec from EU investigators?
Mitch Prothero
Jul 23, 2020, 8:53 AM

Former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun. picture alliance/Getty Images

Former Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek disappeared in late June after a $2 billion hole was found in the German company's accounts. Sources tell Insider they believe he is in hiding in Russia.

But why would Russian security agencies help with the escape of a fugitive fintech executive?

"There's a million reasons [for the Russians] to get involved with Wirecard," a Dutch official told Insider. "Russian officials always need to move money to the West, and Wirecard was raising lots of money but not as much as they told investors.

"Russian government and intelligence services expect financial favors by way of support for off-the-books intelligence operations by their favored businessmen," a Central European counterintelligence official told Insider.



European Union investigators and prosecutors have arrested three former top executives from the German financial firm Wirecard, which spectacularly collapsed last month after a $2 billion hole was found in its accounts by outside auditors. They continue to seek former chief operating officer Jan Marsalek for questioning, although law enforcement officials are worried that he may have fled to Russia in late June. 


Former CEO Markus Braun and two other executives were rearrested on Wednesday by German police. Investigators believe that Wirecard — a rising star in European Union online financial circles — had been fraudulently misrepresenting its assets to investors on a systematic basis.

After outside auditors discovered in late June that two accounts that were supposed to be holding $1.9 billion did not exist, Wirecard quickly collapsed. More than $3.2 billion in loans from European and Japanese banks is expected to be lost by investors. Within days of being fired, Braun and other executives were detained for questioning, but Marsalek fled Germany. Security sources told Insider he is most likely in Russia.

He knew the recipe for novichok

Marsalek appears to have substantial ties to Russian intelligence, European law enforcement officials told Insider, who cited his public bragging of trips to Syria in the company of Russian military contractors, about 60 trips to Russia over a 10-year period on six Austrian and three other unidentified "diplomatic" passports, as well as links to various Austrian right-wing politicians and political parties themselves linked to Russia politically and economically.


Marsalek also once bragged to colleagues that he knew the recipe for Novichok, showing the documents containing the "recipe" for the chemical used to poison ex-Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018, according to the Financial Times.

"We believe he is in Russia," a Dutch law enforcement official told Insider. "That he could so easily evade the German warrants, and cross into Russia from Belarus, certainly indicates official cooperation with Russian intelligence."


When asked what Russian intelligence would gain from involvement with a German online finance company, two EU law enforcement officials gave nearly identical accounts of a nexus between criminal activity and Russian intelligence and political operations.

'Russian officials always need to move money to the West, and Wirecard was raising lots of money but not as much as they told investors'

"There's a million reasons to get involved with Wirecard," said the Dutch official. "Russian officials always need to move money to the West, and Wirecard was raising lots of money but not as much as they told investors. So there's strong indications of both money laundering as well as fraud."



"So now the Russians have access to money sloshing around in Europe, Germany in Wirecard, and even Braun and Marsalek themselves in Austria," the official adds, pointing to an Austrian criminal investigation into both men filed as the company collapsed. 


"It's well understood that the Russian government and intelligence services expect financial favors by way of support for off-the-books intelligence operations by their favored businessmen," said a Central European counterintelligence official who cannot be named because of close ties between their government and Russia. 


"Austrian prosecutors will be investigating if Wirecard or these executives were funneling Russian support by way of cash to political figures," the official said. "Or I hope they do, as this has been an allegation raised in the past."


In 2019, prosecutors began an investigation into the use of Austrian banks in Russian money laundering that threatened to drag in members of the political elite.


And in March, 2019 the government of Sebastian Kurtz was forced to resign after allegations that officials from their junior coalition partner, the far-right Freedom Party, had engaged in unethical dealings with Russian nationals.

Read more:
Missing Wirecard exec escaped to Russia and 'has close ties to Russian government officials and possibly organized crime,' intelligence sources say