Jan Marsalek
Jan Marsalek (also Maršálek, born 15 March 1980 in Vienna) is a former Austrian financier. He has been a fugitive since June 2020 because of his role in the collapse of Wirecard.
Biography
Marsalek attended the French Gymnasium in Vienna but left without a degree. At the age of 19, he founded a software company. In 2000, his career at Wirecard began. He became chief operating officer of Wirecard on February 1st, 2010, and also joined the board. Most recently, he was registered as a resident in Munich.
Accusations
The Financial Times started to unmask the suspicious EUR 2 billion transactions in March 2019. After some corporate admissions of a problem, Marsalek was fired in June 2020,[1] and that led to an unavoidable filing for protection against creditors. Marsalek is considered one of the main culprits. Financial Times reported that Marsalek was person of interest for a number of European government due to his alleged links to Russian intelligence.[2] Investigation by Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and Insider indicated that Marsalek flew to Belarus hours after he was fired.[3] On 19 July, the German Handelsblatt reported that Marsalek was in Russia, where he was suspected to live under supervision of the GRU in a mansion near Moscow.[4]
References
- Hope, Bradley; Davies, Paul J.; Kowsmann, Patricia (3 July 2020). "Wirecard's Adventure-Seeking No. 2 Was Key to the Firm's Rapid Rise. Then He Disappeared". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
- Murphy, Paul; Jones, Sam; Warrell, Helen (2020-07-10). "From payments to armaments: the double life of Wirecard's Jan Marsalek | Free to read". www.ft.com. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
- "World's Most Wanted Man Jan Marsalek Located in Belarus; Data Points to Russian Intel Links". bellingcat. 2020-07-18. Retrieved 2020-07-19.
- "Marsalek soll sich nahe Moskau aufhalten" tagesspiegel.de, 19 July 2020