Wirecard AG updates
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Munich police have investigated an €80,000 cost from a checking account in Dubai to the owner of Jan Marsalek’s fiancée in Munich, which might show a uncommon hyperlink to the fugitive former Wirecard govt.
The 41-year outdated Austrian fled in June 2020 simply days earlier than Wirecard crashed into insolvency after admitting that €1.9bn of money and half of its revenues didn’t exist. Marsalek, who’s on Interpol’s most wished record, is accused of “fraud within the billions” by Munich prosecutors.
The crash of the as soon as high-flying digital funds firm, which at its peak in 2018 was a member of Germany’s blue-chip Dax inventory index price €24bn, is certainly one of Europe’s largest postwar accounting scandals.
Marsalek left behind his longtime girlfriend in Munich, who has been interrogated by police a number of occasions, in response to folks briefed on the investigation. As Marsalek and his girlfriend have been engaged, she will declare spousal privilege and refuse to offer testimony.
Marsalek’s fiancée was renting a luxurious flat in Munich, paying a month-to-month hire of about €6,600. Earlier this yr, her landlord acquired a one-off cost of near €80,000, representing the worth of 12 months’ hire.
The cash was wired from a checking account in Dubai from an individual with an Arabic title, and got here with the reference “für Jan” (“on behalf of Jan”). The cash was wired to the checking account used to manage the tenant’s deposit, which is completely different from the one used to settle the month-to-month hire funds, folks briefed on the matter advised the Monetary Occasions. The owner reported the cost to police, in response to these folks.
A spokeswoman for Munich’s public prosecutors advised the FT that investigators acquired a suspicious exercise report from the owner’s financial institution in that context, and declined to remark additional on the cost, which was first reported by Handelsblatt.
It’s unclear if the individual in whose title the cash was despatched actually exists, or if it was an alias utilized by Marsalek. A reputation similar to the sender’s is listed as a consumer of certainly one of Wirecard’s Asian enterprise companions in one of many paperwork reviewed by KPMG throughout its particular audit into Wirecard.
Attorneys for Marsalek and his fiancée didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.
Marsalek is likely one of the most wished white collar suspects globally. Sooner or later after Wirecard’s auditor EY in June 2020 refused to log off the group’s 2019 outcomes, Marsalek took a taxi to a small airport in Austria, the place he boarded a personal jet that he paid in money, in response to an Austrian police doc seen by the FT.
He flew to Minsk, the place his hint was misplaced. “We’ll finally get him,” Munich’s chief prosecutor Hildegard Bäumler-Hösl advised MPs throughout a parliamentary inquiry into the scandal earlier this yr.
