The former Wirecard boss is said to have spied on Kremlin-critical journalist Christo Grozev in Vienna along with two former BVT employees. Even today he may still be spying on behalf of the Russians in Austria.
An arrogant manager of a DAX company, an empathetic adrenaline junkie, a spy in the service of Russia: Jan Marsalek, former board member of payment services provider Wirecard, led a double life for years without the German and Austrian authorities take action, according to an investigation by “Standard”, “Spiegel”, ZDF and the Russian investigative platform The Insider. Today it is still likely that the 43-year-old is spying on Austrian authorities, politicians and companies on behalf of the Russians.
Investigators attribute Marsalek and two former employees of the now-defunct Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT) to an “intelligence cell” that spied on people “in the interests of the Russian Federation”, investigation documents are cited as saying . Former BVT employees are also said to have provided the fuel for the BVT attack under the command of former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl. Both deny accusations of having sold information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. According to “Der Spiegel”, the agents who worked closely with Marsalek also still work in what is now the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN).
Attack plans against journalist Grozev
According to the research, one of the targets of Marsalek's BVT cell was journalist Christo Grozev. As head of the Bellingcat research platform, he uncovered the machinations of Russian intelligence for years. Bellingcat revealed the identities of the spies who poisoned late Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny in 2020.
At the end of 2020, BVT agents searched Grozev's private address in Vienna and took photos of the house, according to “Der Standard”. Marsalek had already traveled abroad at that time. In 2023, Grozev moved to Germany due to specific attack warnings from Western intelligence services. A trial is currently underway in London against a five-member spy network that was tasked with locating, kidnapping and possibly killing Kremlin critics in Marsalek.
Disguised as a priest
According to the research, Russia's secret services specifically recruited Marsalek. As chief operating officer of a company involved in global payments transactions and which counted among its clients international corporations as well as the German Federal Intelligence Service, he was of the greatest interest to Moscow. Russia's secret services apparently sent Natalja S. in 2013 as a “honey trap,” according to “Der Spiegel.” She was supposed to help Marsalek with a deal with the Moscow Metro. The 29-year-old – erotic model and protagonist of a sex film – is said to have had excellent relations with the Moscow administration. She became his lover.
Marsalek and S. are said to have traveled together to Chechnya to discuss with dictator Ramzan Kadyrov's family how around $100 million could be smuggled from Hong Kong to the West.
Marsaleks assumed the identity of a priest
According to “Spiegel”, Stanislaw Petlinksi, “an extended arm of the Russian secret services”, was also instrumental in Marsalek's transformation from businessman to spy. He is said to have “handed over” the Austrian to the GRU military intelligence service in 2014 and was said to have been a frequent guest at Munich's Marsalek control center – an Art Nouveau villa on Prinzregentenstrasse. Furthermore, after the Wirecard fraud scandal was exposed in 2020, Petlinski likely gave Marsalek a new identity through an acquaintance: that of a Russian Orthodox priest who, writes “Der Standard,” “looks surprisingly similar” to he.