Wirecard: Public prosecutor demands extradition of Jan Marsalek from Russia

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On the run:

Ex-Wirecard board member

is said to be under the protection of the Russian secret service in Moscow

Photo: ddp

In the case of the fugitive ex-Wirecard board member

(42), the German judiciary has apparently made a request for legal assistance to the Russian government.

The goal is Marsalek's extradition, reports the "Bild" newspaper (Tuesday), citing government circles.

As a result, the Munich public prosecutor's office sent a request for arrest to the Kremlin before Easter.

In it, the investigators demanded that the Russian judiciary take Marsalek, who was wanted around the world, from a hiding place in Moscow provided by the Russian secret service FSB, arrest him and extradite him to Germany.

The request contains Marsalek's exact escape location from January 2021.

The "Bild" newspaper reported a week ago that Marsalek had gone into hiding in Moscow.

According to this, the whereabouts of the former Wirecard board member have been known to the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Chancellery since last year.

According to the report, the Munich investigators are said not to have been informed, but only found out about Marsalek's whereabouts through the revelations in the newspaper.

Two Munich public prosecutors then traveled to Berlin last Tuesday to inspect the secret Marsalek files at the BND headquarters, the paper writes.

Among them are a BND report from Moscow and another document proving that the BND had informed the Chancellery about the fraudster's escape location.

These files also contain a previous offer by the Russians that the German investigators be allowed to interrogate Marsalek.

In mid-March, the Munich I public prosecutor brought charges against ex-Wirecard boss

(53) in connection with the collapse of the payment processor almost two years ago.

The investigators accuse him and other former Wirecard managers of accounting fraud, market manipulation, breach of trust and commercial gang fraud.

Braun has been in custody since July 2020 and rejects the allegations.

He sees himself as a victim of his board colleague and confidant Marsalek, who has been on the run since mid-2020.

Wirecard, which was listed in the Dax at the time, had to file for bankruptcy in June 2020 due to a balance sheet hole of 1.9 billion euros.

mg/Reuters, AFP