Our five compatriots are also accused in connection with “a person known as” Jan Marsalek. He is not a defendant in their case.
The prosecution claims that Marsalek assigned tasks to the alleged leader of the spy cell, Orlin Rusev. Marsalek has been in hiding for years. He is known as an Austrian citizen, the former chief operating officer of the bankrupt German payment company Wirecard, considered the European equivalent of PayPal. Germany is looking for him for “fraud of billions”.
Wirecard filed for bankruptcy in 2020 with debts to creditors amounting to almost 4 billion euros. The audit revealed a financial hole of nearly 2 billion as a result of a complex international fraud scheme. Marsalek is believed to have fled via an airport south of Vienna, flying to Belarus on a private jet. He is probably currently in Russia.
