Jan Marsalek and the coup of the century

Munich The fraud at the insolvent payment service provider Wirecard is apparently even bigger than expected. The previous assumption was that 1.9 billion euros were missing from the balance sheet. Research now shows: The existence of a further 800 million euros in trust is questionable.

The central figure is the former board member Jan Marsalek. All threads came together with the manager, who has since gone into hiding. But Marsalek did not act alone. The network of his suspected fraud spans the globe, with hotspots in Asia and the Middle East.

The Handelsblatt spoke to employees and ex-employees, evaluated internal documents, studied mail traffic and chat protocols. Everything indicates that the Munich public prosecutor’s office is correct in its assumption: a gang was at work at Wirecard.

The investigation is ongoing against at least 13 people from Marsalek’s environment. This newspaper has a list of 24 companies that had connections to Marsalek and received over 125 million euros in loans from Wirecard. “The money laundering department has often complained,” reports one employee. “They asked, where is the invoice, where is the contract? But Jan always said: I’ll deliver that later. You pay it off now, otherwise there will be consequences. “

Prepare for day X

There is no doubt that Jan Marsalek knew what consequences his behavior as a board member of Wirecard would one day have. He maintained close contacts with foreign secret services. He got false passports. For years, Wirecard employees had been used to Marsalek simply disappearing. For days, sometimes weeks, nobody knew where the boss was. A long-time business friend reports that he also used the time to stash cash around the world. Sometimes Marsalek is said to have deposited one million euros with a confidante, sometimes six million.