By Kyiv Post

Copyright kyivpost

Jan Marsalek, a former business executive turned Russian spy, has reportedly been fighting in Ukraine after fleeing from European prosecution in 2020.

Austrian-born Marsalek is the former chief operating officer (COO) of Wirecard, a German financial firm that was exposed for fraud in 2020 – though subsequent Bellingcat reports suggest that he has been working for the Russian intelligence since at least 2010.

Russian investigative outlet The Insider, working with Germany’s Der Spiegel, reported that Marsalek is currently living in Moscow, dating an employee from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), while making frequent visits to Ukraine alongside Russian special forces for “combat missions.”

While Marsalek’s possible role in Ukraine remains unclear, he has been pictured wearing Russian military uniform and insignias, with billing records showing that he visited regions close to ongoing hostilities in February 2024.

The Insider, citing phone records, said a device belonging to one of Marsalek’s known cover identities was inactive for 12 days before reconnecting at 10:08 a.m. on Feb. 21, 2024, at a train station in the Russian border town of Mitrofanovka, close to the occupied territories.

The report also said Marsalek has made at least five short trips – each time just a little over a day – to occupied Crimea accompanied by Russian special forces soldiers.

The outlet’s source “in the Russian special services” also confirmed that Marsalek went on combat missions without providing further details.

But The Insider, citing Marsalek’s past activities in Libya and his known accomplices – which included famed Russian photographer Sergey Bermeniev – suggests that Marsalek’s trips were made to document frontline actions to feed his alleged adrenaline addiction.

Bermeniev refused to answer The Insider’s inquiry, while Marsalek answered with a cryptic response.

“You understand yourself, even if I knew something about all this, I could not talk to you about it,” he said.

Who is Jan Marsalek?

Marsalek was the former COO of Wirecard who fled Europe five years ago when the company was discovered to have inflated its financial reports by $2 billion.

He is the subject of an ongoing Interpol red notice for “false declaration, market manipulation, breach of trust in a particularly serious case, gang-type fraud on a repetitive and gainful basis.”

Marsalek said he was going to the Philippines to recover the lost funds when the scandal surfaced but was later found to have fled to Russia via Minsk, the capital of Belarus.

The Insider’s 2024 report suggests that Marsalek was introduced to Stanislav Petlinsky, an officer of Russia’s Military Intelligence (GRU), in 2014 via a Russian model called Natalia Zlobina, whom he dated and worked with.

Marsalek was said to have been introduced to more Kremlin political and intelligence figures over the years, where he helped Russian intelligence acquire properties and assets of interest while serving as Wirecard’s COO.

In one instance, he was said to have purchased the Libyan Cement Company and an affiliated Russian private military company (PMC) after consultations with Russian intelligence officers.

Marsalek also recruited assets in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism (BVT) – Austria’s main secret service. This gave the Kremlin access to figures and data of interest that had been shared with Western intelligence agencies.

In 2024, a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report described Vienna as a “hub for Russian espionage,” with an increase in the number of representatives who are suspected of working as spies under diplomatic cover.