Jan Marsalek


Jan Marsalek 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. 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, 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. Investigation by Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and Insider indicated that Marsalek flew to Belarus hours after he was fired. 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.