Germany Asks Russia to Help Find Former Wirecard Executive Jan Marsalek
Germany is seeking help from Russia to help locate missing
Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
Russian authorities had no comment, according to WSJ, and
neither did representatives from Wirecard or a lawyer for Marsalek.
Marsalek was in charge of running operations for the FinTech
company, which was once a darling of the tech scene but has now been disgraced
by an international money-laundering scandal unfolding since last month.
According to sources familiar with the company, Marsalek was in charge of the
company’s relations with third-party firms that processed payments in areas
where the company wasn’t licensed.
Those revenues made up a large part of the company’s massive
revenues, and are a focus of the investigation, WSJ wrote, based on documents
reviewed. Marsalek has eluded authorities since the controversy started, with
no one being able to account for his whereabouts since around June 18 when the
company suspended him.
Germany is asking Russia to act on an Interpol notice for
Marsalek’s arrest, WSJ wrote. The request was made on July 22 along with a “red
notice” through Interpol, and both were revealed in written answers to
reporters on Wednesday (July 29), according to Interpol. A “red notice” from
Interpol means a worldwide request for governments anywhere to locate and
arrest a suspect.
Wirecard’s clout began to fall in June when the company was
found to have possibly cooked its books, with $2 million missing from the books
that the company said was in banks in the Philippines. But an investigation
ended up not finding any such funds.
And since then, the scandal has repeatedly widened to
include more regulators and officials worldwide who apparently looked the other
way while the company allegedly committed various forms of fraud. In one
instance last week, three former executives were arrested for reportedly
conspiring to inflate the company’s revenue through creating fake businesses
with third party companies.
The alleged scheme was intended to portray financial
solvency and strength on Wirecard’s part, allowing it to borrow $3.7 billion.
Comments
Post a Comment