Former Wirecard chief operating officer and one of the world's most wanted criminals, Jan Marsalek, is currently in Belarus, according to the Bellingcat investigation.

About a month ago, EY auditors identified a €1.9 billion hole in the balance sheet of the German company he manages. Soon after, the company's top management, including Marsalek, was fired. The company's share price fell from 100 to 1.08 euros in seven days.

It was later revealed that Wirecard's management was manipulating accounts in order to increase the company's capitalization and make it more attractive to investors.

Some time later, the Munich police detained Wirecard CEO Markus Braun. He is suspected of falsifying data on the company's account balances. On June 23, the judge will choose a measure of restraint against brown.

links with Russia

Jan Marsalek, a 40-year-old Austrian, has been working at Wirecard since 2010, responsible for the company's operations in Asia. According to the publication, against the background of the scandal and the arrest of brown, the top Manager said that he was going to the Philippines in order to find the missing billions and prove his innocence.

Since then, he was wanted by the authorities of Germany, Austria and other countries ' secret services not only for financial fraud, but also on suspicion of links with Russian intelligence.

According to the investigation, since 2015, Marsalek has been involved in various projects in Libya, allegedly for the purpose of "humanitarian reconstruction of the country". In reality, however, he was working with Russian advisers and European officials as part of a plan to create private military companies to protect commercial interests in the civil war-torn country.

According to Bellingcat, Marsalek's adviser on the Libyan initiative was Andrey Chuprygin, a Russian expert on the Arab world. According to Western intelligence agencies, he is a high-ranking GRU officer who maintains close ties with the intelligence community.

According to Spiegel, Marsalek also maintained close ties with The Kremlin-loyal far-right Austrian freedom party. He gave her secret information.
According to Bellingcat, marsalek was a frequent visitor to Russia: over the past 10 years, He has made more than 60 trips to the country.

His first trip took place in 2004, he did not visit Russia at all for six years, and since 2010, when he joined the Board of Wirecard, he began to fly regularly. Marsalek's trips became more active in 2014: he flew to Moscow 10 times, while usually staying only for a day.

The Hospitable Belarus

Shortly after the suspension of a Wirecard Board member, Marsalek was finally fired and found himself wanted.

After his disappearance, in conversations with friends and former colleagues, he mentioned that he was in the East Asian time zone. Marsalek was once asked if he was in a " politically stable environment." He laughed and said:

"Don't worry, the same people have been in power here for the last 25 years."

The border crossing database lists the former top Manager as having entered Belarus on a private plane on the night of June 19, 2020. According to border data, he did not leave the country after that.

According to Bellingcat, Marsalek first arrived in Tallinn from Klagenfurt, Austria, on an Embraer 650 Legacy private jet. At the same time, a regular Lufthansa commercial flight LH882 from Frankfurt landed in Tallinn. Less than 15 minutes after landing, THE lh882 Embraer business jet took off for Minsk.
Founded in 1999, Wirecard was the most famous German technology startup. In 2018, the company was among the top 30 German companies tracked by the DAX index.

Wirecard has been partnered with a number of well-known companies in the crypto industry, including Crypto.com, TenX and CryptoPay.

In late June, Wirecard began bankruptcy proceedings.