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Wanted poster for Wirecard ex-CEO Jan Marsalek in Berlin
Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA-EFE / Shutterstock
The affair of the fugitive ex-Wirecard manager Jan Marsalek finally expands into a secret service thriller.
In Austria, the Vienna Public Prosecutor's Office has arrested a former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT) and a former member of the National Council of the right-wing populist FPÖ.
According to the arrest warrant, which SPIEGEL was able to see, there is an urgent suspicion that Martin W. and Thomas Schellenbacher helped Marsalek escape to Belarus on June 19.
The ex-Wirecard board of directors is said to have fled from Bad Vöslau in Austria to Minsk in a small Cessna aircraft with flight number FTY5.
It is not known where he has been since then.
Rumor has it he is hiding in Russia.
The Munich public prosecutor's office is investigating the Vienna-born Marsalek, among other things, for commercial gang fraud in the billions.
The Austrian newspaper Der Standard first reported on the latest twist in the affair.
According to the Austrian investigation documents, the former BVT department head Martin W. is said to have met with Marsalek in a pub the day before his escape in Munich in order to arrange for his disappearance.
The former FPÖ MP Schellenbacher is said to have arranged the flight with the Cessna.
Schellenbacher has made headlines several times in recent years.
The entrepreneur, who had previously been politically inexperienced, surprisingly appeared on the list of the Vienna FPÖ for the National Council elections in 2013.
He narrowly missed entry into the National Council, but strangely enough, he got a seat because three other candidates gave up their posts.
Later it became known, among other things through an affidavit, that the mandate had apparently been bought.
A group of Ukrainian entrepreneurs is said to have paid ten million euros for Schellenbacher to move into parliament.
There is a suspicion that the then FPÖ boss and later Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache was instrumental in the deal.
This is indicated by photos of a sports bag with cash that was allegedly in Strache's car.
"It stinks at Wirecard"
Schellenbacher, who was arrested on Wednesday, has since admitted in an interrogation that he organized the flight to Minsk for Marsalek - allegedly on behalf of the secret service agent Martin W., who had been released from BVT for some time.
The EX-FPÖ member frankly admitted to the investigators that he had "of course" noticed "that it stinks at Wirecard," after all, Marsalek had been removed from the board in June.
Martin W. calmed him down and said that it was just "a media story", that it was "all right".
He then forwarded Marsalek's passport to the pilot of the plane.
The ex-Wirecard board of directors paid in cash.
On the day of the escape, Martin W. called several times to say that Marsalek would be late and that his taxi could not find the way to the airport in Bad Vöslau - further evidence that the BVT officer was apparently close to the hectic escape was involved in Belarus.
According to the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, Martin W. was arrested on Friday evening.
His lawyer initially did not respond to a request from SPIEGEL.
Alleged abuse of authority
According to the German investigators, Marsalek and Martin W. had been in close contact for years.
The Austrian secret service man was a permanent guest at Marsalek's Munich domicile, a Wilhelminian style villa on Prinzregentenstrasse in the posh district of Bogenhausen.
According to SPIEGEL information, they conducted joint business from there.
In addition to the suspicion of helping people to escape, the Austrian judiciary is now raising other explosive allegations against the former BVT department head Martin W .. The investigators accuse him of having taken on dubious sideline activities for Wirecard.
He is said to have checked the solvency of porn site providers for the financial service provider.
In this context, Martin W. and possibly other BVT employees would have determined personal data for Wirecard - and thus abused their official authority.
The Viennese public prosecutor's office accuses Marsalek of bribery in this context.
Marsalek's German lawyer did not want to comment on the new allegations.
"Please understand that there is still no comment on this matter," he told SPIEGEL.
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