A former Wirecard executive who has been on the run since the company’s collapse in 2020 is living in Moscow under an assumed identity and working with Russian intelligence, according to an international media investigation published on Tuesday.
Jan Marsalek, a 45-year-old Austrian who served as chief operating officer of the German digital payments firm, has been wanted by German authorities on fraud charges and is listed on Interpol’s wanted database.
According to a joint investigation carried out by Der Standard, Der Spiegel, ZDF, PBS and The Insider, Marsalek lives in Russia under the name Alexander Nelidov, with close ties to Russia’s FSB security service.
“Under this name, he is said to have been active in Ukraine, founded companies in Moscow, and moves freely in Russia,” Der Standard wrote.
Leaked data placed Marsalek’s phone hundreds of times near the FSB’s Moscow headquarters between January and November 2024, Der Standard added. His phone number was also tracked near the residence of another Russian agent, with whom he is said to be privately involved.
Photos said to show Marsalek in Moscow and in military uniform bearing the pro-war “Z” symbol suggest he may have fought in Ukraine. He has also reportedly traveled at least five times to annexed Crimea, as well as to Mariupol and other conflict zones.
Records show that Marsalek obtained Russian citizenship under the alias Nelidov in 2023, the investigation said. But no evidence of a person by that name exists in Ukraine or at the Moscow address listed under his documents.
Using his alias, Marsalek registered two companies in Moscow, one dealing with auto parts and the other with agricultural products.
Wirecard collapsed in June 2020 after auditors revealed that 1.9 billion euros ($2.3 billion) supposedly held in Asian trustee accounts did not exist. It is one of Germany’s largest corporate fraud scandals.
Former chief executive Markus Braun and other top executives are on trial in Munich.
Marsalek has also been linked to Russian spy networks abroad. Earlier this year, six Bulgarians convicted of espionage in Britain were said in court to have reported to him as a liaison with Russian intelligence.
That operation focused on the surveillance of people and places of interest to the Russian government.
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