From DAX executive to Russian agent
For years he was on the run—until a team of international journalists tracked down the former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek in Moscow and shadowed him for more than a year. Some members of this investigative team are now themselves being surveilled and threatened by Putin’s henchmen. And governments remained inactive for two years.
From Moscow, Marsalek devises kidnapping plans, directs spies, and travels to the Ukrainian war zone. His mobile phone regularly logs into the headquarters of the FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence service in Moscow. Under one of at least six aliases, such as “Alexander Nelidov,” the globally wanted fraudster involving billions had already settled in Moscow in 2020. Since then, he has been a fugitive. Germany’s Federal Public Prosecutor General is also investigating Marsalek on suspicion of espionage.
Working for Marsalek is a network of former Austrian intelligence officers, Russian senior commanders, and brutal mercenaries ready to commit any crime. In May 2025, six Bulgarians were sentenced in London to five to ten years in prison each for espionage. They acted on Marsalek’s behalf—and there are numerous leads pointing to Austria. The surveillance of a U.S. military base near Stuttgart was also included in the verdict. In the United Kingdom, this trial was considered one of the largest espionage cases in recent history.
PARTICIPANTS
- Manuel Bewarder, investigative journalist, NDR/WDR
- Jörg Diehl, investigative journalist, NDR/WDR/SZ
- Anna Thalhammer, Editor-in-Chief of Profil (Austria)
MODERATED BY
- Prof. Dr. Helmut Müller-Enbergs, political scientist
IN GERMAN
Additional information
Dates
March 2026
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