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Call for a search for the escaped Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek
Photo:
Daniel Bockwoldt / dpa
Former Wirecard manager Jan Marsalek is said to have been a confidante of the Austrian intelligence service.
This is reported by the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
According to the report, the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe is examining Marsalek's role as a contact.
Germany’s highest law enforcement agency had evidence that Marsalek - who was born in Austria - was "led by an employee of the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT) as a confidant," said the answer to a written question from the Left Bundestag member Fabio De Masi.
According to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", German security groups have long been certain that Marsalek had close ties to BVT.
The German services would not have been informed of this by their Austrian colleagues.
Marsalek may have spied for the Austrian service in Germany.
In July, the daily newspaper "Presse" reported that Marsalek allegedly passed on secret information from the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BVT) and the Ministry of the Interior to the right-wing populist FPÖ through an intermediary.
Austria's authorities and ministries have not yet commented on the matter.
One could not say anything for "legal reasons", said a spokesman for the interior ministry of the "Süddeutsche Zeitung".
The Federal Chancellery in Vienna also did not comment.
Opposition calls for special investigators
This Thursday, a parliamentary committee of inquiry into Wirecard in the Bundestag began work, primarily to examine the political dimension.
The opposition made up of the Left, the Greens and the FDP called for the appointment of a special investigator to investigate the Wirecard Group's contacts with secret services in Austria and Russia, for example.
In June, the payment service provider Wirecard had granted air bookings of 1.9 billion euros.
The public prosecutor's office is investigating commercial gang fraud, breach of trust, incorrect presentation and market manipulation against the former leadership around ex-CEO Markus Braun.
With the exception of one key witness, the managers reject the allegations.
The ex-board member Marsalek, who was considered to be the mastermind, initially flew to Belarus by private jet in June, but is now supposed to be in Russia.
It is also suspected that Marsalek should have received support from Russian services in his escape, among others.
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