Former Wirecard COO Jan Marsalek on the run, added to Interpol’s most wanted list

Former Wirecard AG COO Jan Marsalek was added to Interpol’s most wanted list and German authorities issued a public appeal for leads to track down wanted fugitive this week. Marsalek is believed to be at the center of a multibillion-euro financial scandal at Wirecard that blue up seven weeks ago.

The published appeal for information on Marsalek states:

Jan Marsalek, ex-board member of Wirecard AG, is strongly suspected of having committed billions in commercial gang fraud, the particularly serious case of embezzlement and other property and economic offenses.

The German fintech made the headlines in June with the news that €1.9 billion ($2.2 billion) missing from its accounts. The former COO Marsalek has been in hiding ever since. He is currently one of the prime suspects.

Wirecard Card Solutions

Three other former executives of Wirecard have been arrested including former chief executive officer Markus Braun. The prosecutors suspect that the company has known about the losses since 2015. The Braun, Marsalek and the two other executives allegedly conspired to about €3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) in fraudulent loans. Allegedly, they intended to inflate the books and make the company appear and more attractive to investors.

Marsalek was previously thought to be hiding in the Philippines but was discovered that immigration data that pointed to him being there was falsified. The Germany authorities believe that Marsalek fled to Belarus and he is currently hiding there or in Russia.

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