Fugitive Austrian Wirecard executive in Russia: Media investigation

VIENNA – A former executive of the fallen German digital finance flagship Wirecard on the run since 2020 lives in Moscow under a false identity, according to an international media investigation published Sept 16.

Austrian Jan Marsalek is on an Interpol list, wanted by Germany over fraud allegations following

the collapse of Wirecard

in June 2020.

In its heyday, Wirecard was heralded as a success story for German technology and was admitted into the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s blue-chip DAX index.

Marsalek, 45, who worked as the company’s chief operating officer, “lives in Russia, using false identities and remaining closely tied to Vladimir Putin’s regime”, Austrian daily Der Standard wrote.

It collaborated with German media outlets Der Spiegel and ZDF, American channel PBS and Russian platform The Insider to reconstruct Marsalek’s movements based on documents, including investigation files and intercepted text messages.

Der Standard’s report included several photos the paper said were of Marsalek, including one taken in July in Moscow.

It said Marsalek is “in the service of the Russian intelligence agency FSB” and has adopted a new identity, going by the name of Alexander Nelidov.

“Under this name, he is said to have been active in Ukraine, founded companies in Moscow, and moves freely in Russia,” Der Standard wrote.

“Between January and November 2024, the phone number of his alias was tracked more than 300 times in the vicinity of the intelligence headquarters” based on “leaked location data from a Russian database”, it added.

The number was also tracked near the residence of another Russian agent, with whom Marsalek is said to be privately involved.

He reportedly travelled at least five times to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Russia says it annexed in 2014, and to conflict zones in eastern Ukraine and Mariupol.

Photos showing Marsalek in a military uniform with the letter “Z” on it – a symbol of support for Russia’s war in Ukraine – “further suggest a possible combat deployment”, according to Der Standard.

Russian citizenship

The first official records about “Nelidov” date back to June 2023. According to passport data, he is said to have obtained Russian citizenship as a Ukrainian during Moscow’s stated annexation of Ukraine’s Donbas region to Russia, Der Standard said.

However, research shows there has never been a person by that name in Ukraine, nor can he be found at the registered address provided for Nelidov in Moscow, it added.

Using this identity, Marsalek registered two companies in Moscow – officially for the trade of auto parts and agricultural products.

Wirecard imploded after it was forced to admit that €1.9 billion (S$2.9 billion) in cash, meant to be sitting in trustee accounts in Asia, did not exist.

Several senior figures from the company are separately facing criminal trials over the scandal, including

former chief executive Markus Braun.

In May,

six Bulgarians were convicted of spying

in the UK, with the court told that they were part of a cell that reported to Marsalek, who acted as a go-between with Russian intelligence.

The operation focused on surveillance of people and places of interest to the Russian state. AFP