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Hardly any evidence of Wirecard board members who fled

2020-08-13T13:08:04.976Z


For almost two months, the former board member and suspected fraudster Jan Marsalek has been on the run. Now the public should search too. The first reactions give little hope.


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Jan Marsalek, how you know him (right) and what he might look like at the moment: The Federal Criminal Police Office is using these photos to search for the Wirecard manager

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- / picture alliance / dpa

"A case that has been causing a sensation across Europe for weeks," said Rudi Cerne, presenter of the TV program "Aktenzeichen XY ... unsolved", inaugurating the public search for Jan Marsalek on Wednesday evening. He was a member of the board of directors of the Dax group Wirecard until June 18, when he was fired, he was apparently already on the run. He is accused of professional gang fraud, particularly serious infidelity and other offenses. It is about up to 3.2 billion euros, which Marsalek is said to have smuggled out of the company together with numerous other internal and external helpers in recent years. His lawyer does not comment on the allegations.

Now the public prosecutor's office in Munich I, the police headquarters in Munich and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) have asked the population for support in their search for the 40-year-old Austrian. Europol and Interpol help with the international search. On the page "Europe's most wanted", where Europol shows the most wanted criminals on the continent, Marsalek stands high between two alleged murderers.

But the first response to the manhunt is cautious. "As of today, there have been a dozen or so responses," a spokeswoman for the BKA told SPIEGEL. The quality of the information is also apparently moderate, according to the Munich public prosecutor's office. There is still no feedback from Europol and Interpol.

Contacts with secret services

In the case of economic crimes, it is not uncommon for far fewer reports to come from the population than in cases of general crime such as assaults or violent crimes. In addition, even before his escape, Marsalek was not considered to be someone who showed up a lot in public or even traveled on buses and trains. He stayed in luxury hotels, flew on private jets and partied in Monte Carlo or St. Tropez.

He maintained contacts with the secret services, in politics, but also in the underworld. Marsalek also traveled a lot. As a board member, he was responsible for international business, among other things, the investigators point to good contacts in Russia, Dubai and the Philippines and suspect Marsalek to be abroad.

Marsalek had apparently planned his escape, and he went about it with great effort. He pretended to have entered the Philippines on June 23 and flew to China a day later. The Philippine Justice Department shortly thereafter admitted that the entry details were falsified. Marsalek allegedly bribed immigration officials to cover up his escape route.

According to information from SPIEGEL, the investigative platforms Bellingcat and The Insider as well as the American McClatchy Report, the fugitive manager traveled to Belarus via the airport in the capital Minsk on the night of June 18 to June 19. The "Handelsblatt" later reported that he was staying near Moscow. But there is conflicting information. A person close to Wirecard told SPIEGEL that Marsalek was seen in Munich on the morning of June 19.

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Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2020-08-13

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