Wirecard scandal: Marsalek and his Russia contacts

Refugee expert Kleinschmidt originally wanted to start a project in Libya with Marsalek.

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The then Wirecard manager told him at a meeting in Munich in June 2017 that he had recently visited the ancient ruined city of Palmyra in Syria “with the support of the Russians”, which the terrorist militia “Islamic State” had recently recaptured. Marsalek, on the other hand, quickly lost interest in the planned refugee project.

Instead, according to Kleinschmidt, the now 41-year-old spoke of the plan to set up 15,000 to 20,000 militiamen as border guards to guard the Libyan southern border: “What his approach here was very clear: Take Libyan militias and give them a uniform, trains them, equips them to become border guards for the Libyan state. ”

The British business newspaper “Financial Times” had already reported on Marsalek’s alleged visit to Palmyra in July 2020, but only cited anonymous sources.

Did Marsalek brag about violent videos?

At another meeting with Marsalek in Munich in February 2018, according to Kleinschmidt, in connection with video recordings on body cams, he said to two business partners from Austria: “The boys shoot all the prisoners.” Kleinschmidt assumed that it was about shots taken by employees of Russian security companies.

One of the two Austrians is still active today with the rank of brigadier in the Ministry of Defense in Vienna. Neither of the business partners from Vienna at the time say they can remember the special conversation about the video recordings. In the e-mail correspondence between the Austrian interlocutors and Marsalek, the report Munich could see, a Russian Arabia expert was also involved, who is said to have connections to the Russian military intelligence service GRU.

Contacts with Russian security company

Marsalek, who is wanted by Interpol today, was more closely connected to Russian security circles than previously known. He himself had contacts with a Russian security company that was active in Libya. According to research by report Munich and BR Research He also maintained connections with the owners of a cement factory in Benghazi, Libya, the company Libya Holdings Limited. That comes from internal mails that Marsalek exchanged with a representative of the company.

Benghazi is under the control of the insurgent warlord Chalifa Haftar, who is supported by Russia. According to Kleinschmidt, Marsalek described himself as a co-owner of three cement factories in Libya: “Jan Marsalek had spoken of investing in Libya together with a Libyan partner.” According to Kleinschmidt, Marsalek is said to have bought cement works there.

When asked, Libya Holdings denied that Marsalek was one of its shareholders. The company confirmed, however, that the Russian security company RSB had been working for the cement factory in Libya, apparently at least in 2017. RSB stated that Jan Marsalek had “never had anything to do with”. According to the company, the order in Benghazi was only about mine clearance. On a Twitter account, which is apparently controlled by the company, there was also talk of alleged combat-like activities in Libya in 2017.

Explosive Telegram chats over Russia connection

In March 2019, Marsalek exchanged information with a Wirecard employee via the Telegram messenger service and wrote in it apparently ironically about people who were shot by “MY Russians at RSB.”

After the collapse of Wirecard, Marsalek fled via Austria to Minsk in Belarus in June 2020. His current whereabouts are unknown, but the name Russia is particularly common in this context. As recently reported by the “Stern”, he was suspected by the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) in August in a closely guarded facility of the Russian domestic secret service FSB in Balashikha, east of Moscow.

Kleinschmidt: No interest in details from the authorities

However, the statements by Kilian Kleinschmidt also indicate that the German security authorities did not always give top priority to all information about the volatile ex-Wirecard manager. Kleinschmidt said he had contacted the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) after a search call in summer 2020. There he was evidently referred to the police headquarters in Munich, whose target investigators are trying to locate Marsalek on behalf of the local public prosecutor’s office.

In Munich, Kleinschmidt said, communication with him was via WhatsApp’s comparatively poorly secured chat. But they were only interested in information about Marsalek’s whereabouts, not in other clues. Even the BND never contacted him, Kleinschmidt reported to the Wirecard investigative committee of the Bundestag in a closed session in November. Since then, no German officials have apparently contacted the well-known refugee expert to inquire about his information about the fugitive manager.

Toncar: the authorities’ approach is “highly unprofessional”

The FDP MP Florian Toncar speaks of a “highly unprofessional” and “catastrophic” approach by the authorities: “If you don’t know how this person lived, where his connections were, where his interests were, how can you find out who? possibly helped him escape where he might be. ”

The BND and the Protection of the Constitution did not want to comment on the events. The BKA pointed out that in cases like these, the information from citizens would be “automatically forwarded to the investigative agency”, in this case to the Munich Police Headquarters. A spokeswoman for the Munich public prosecutor’s office said she could not provide any information “on questions of the ongoing search” or on possible contacts in the context of the investigation. Jan Marsalek’s lawyers spoke out BR-Inquiry not.