Two Arrested for Orchestrating Escape of Wirecard Exec Accused of Fraud
The collapsed financial firm had previously supplied cards to several cryptocurrency companies.
Jan 25, 2021 at 12:46 p.m. UTCUpdated Aug 19, 2021 at 6:47 a.m. UTC
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Two Austrian men accused of helping Wirecard's former chief operating officer escape to Belarus have been arrested by police in Vienna.
- According to a report from the Financial Times on Monday, a former senior official of the Austrian secret service and a former right-wing politician were both apprehended in connection with Jan Marsalek’s escape.
- Marsalek, an Austrian citizen, is on Interpol’s most-wanted list for allegedly masterminding the corporate fraud that ended with Wirecard's collapse and an estimated €1.9 billion (US$2.3 billion) missing.
- Police documents seen by the FT confirm Marsalek escaped to Belarus from Austria last summer using a private jet he paid for with cash.
- Wirecard's troubles caused issues at the time for cryptocurrency firms Crypto.com and TenX, to which it had supplied payment cards.
- Among the accusations of embezzlement, Marsalek is alleged to have sent large amounts of bitcoin to Russia from Dubai, where Wirecard had operated "dubious" services, according to previous reports.
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