The Great Crack

Wirecard, the former (fugitive) CEO lives in Moscow under a false identity

This was revealed by a joint investigation in which Der Spiegel also participated: Jan Marsalek has been unaccounted for since 2020

16 September 2025

2' min read

For many, Wirecard is now the name of one of Europe's biggest financial scandals. A German financial services company, listed on the DAX, which collapsed in 2020 after a colossal scandal: balance sheets revealed that EUR 1.9 billion was missing. Money that had in fact never existed.

Since the scandal broke in 2020, former CEO Jan Marsalek has been nowhere to be found. Fugitive. But according to a joint investigation - carried out by the German media Der Spiegel and Zdf, the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, the American television station Pbs and the Russian platform The Insider - he has now been identified: he lives in Moscow under a false identity. A photo, taken in July in the Russian capital, also accompanies the news.

On the basis of documents from investigations conducted by the authorities, intercepted text messages, thanks to informants and freely accessible data, these media outlets reconstructed his movements.

It is worth mentioning that Marsalek is wanted by Interpol for being the former right-hand man of computer engineer Markus Braun.

The collapse of Wirecard is considered one of the biggest economic scandals in Germany.

According to the investigation, Marsalek, with the help of the Russian secret service (FSB), adopted a new identity at least since June 2023, as a naturalised Ukrainian citizen, during Russia's annexation of the Donbass. According to Der Standard, between January and November 2024, his phone number was located more than 300 times near the FSB headquarters.

The German authorities issued an arrest warrant against him and sent a request for mutual legal assistance to Moscow. However, Russia officially denies knowing his whereabouts. And by virtue of the frosty relations between Moscow and Europe, cooperation seems rather unlikely.