Jan Marsalek

Marsalek and the rest of the company's executive team were dismissed on 18 June 2020, after which he fled Germany. He is now reportedly living in Russia after Interpol issued a "red notice" arrest warrant for his alleged role in the Wirecard scandal. According to investigators, Marsalek had been recruited by Russian intelligence since at least 2010.

Early life Marsalek attended high school in Austria but dropped out without obtaining a diploma. Marsalek's grandfather, Hans Maršálek, was a member of the Austrian resistance during World War II and was later suspected to be a spy for the Soviet Union. At the age of 19, Jan Marsalek founded an e-commerce software company.

Career with Wirecard Marsalek began working for Wirecard in 2000, initially hired for his knowledge on WAP systems. On 1 February 2010, he became the firm's chief operating officer and also joined the company's executive committee.

Wirecard scandal

Marsalek and the rest of Wirecard's executive team were terminated on 18 June 2020. According to Bellingcat, an investigative journalism website, Marsalek claimed to colleagues he was going to the Philippines to prove his innocence. Soon afterward, he was reported missing.

Marsalek's last known residence was in Munich. An investigation by Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and The Insider indicated that he fled to Minsk, Belarus, just hours after he was fired from Wirecard. On 19 July 2020, the German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that Marsalek was probably in Russia, where he was believed to live under the supervision of the Russian GRU in a mansion near Moscow. According to Die Welt, the BND had information in 2020 that Marsalek was at a Russian FSB training center in Balashikha, a suburb of Moscow.

Life in Russia In May 2021, the German BND assessed that Marsalek remained living near Moscow. The Russian government claimed it was unaware of his whereabouts.

In September 2025, through the cooperation of Der Spiegel (Germany), ZDF (Germany), Standard (Austria), PBS-Frontline (USA), and The Insider (Latvia) detailed information about Marsalek's life and activities in Russia was successfully obtained.

Marsalek was regularly accompanied by the translator Tatiana Spiridonova (born 1984). Marsalek learned Russian from her. According to reports, she is also considered a close contact person with ties to state institutions in Moscow. She took over courier services: In June 2022, she brought smartphones procured in Vienna to Moscow via Istanbul. Chat logs document the handover to Spiridonova and her quick return journey.

On December 13, 2022, Spiridonova also picked up a laptop with NATO-compliant encryption ("SINA") in Istanbul and brought it to Moscow that same night. In a chat, Marsalek wrote that the device was "in a car on the way to Lubyanka". The action is consistent with previous reports that Marsalek is said to have supplied Russia with sensitive computing hardware.

His commute to the headquarters of the Russian domestic intelligence agency FSB in Moscow is also documented. According to the research, Marsalek has used several false identities and, since 2025, a real Russian passport. According to the report, Marsalek was allegedly born on February 22, 1978, in Soviet Riga; his new alias is Alexander Mikhailovich Nelidov.

Data analyses also document travel by Marsalek to the war zone in eastern Ukraine and to Russian-occupied Mariupol. According to informants in Moscow, he is said to have participated in operations behind the front lines there. Passport entries and travel data show that he visited Russian-occupied Crimea several times.

In 2023, Marsalek contracted with a group composed of five Bulgarian nationals, all later arrested in London after trying to target Russian opposition across Europe. In their September 2023 trial, all five Bulgarians were accused of being part of a Russian spying network in the UK. The prosecution alleged that the network had been given its instructions by Jan Marsalek.

In March 2024, Der Spiegel's English-language website published a detailed investigation into Marsalek's alleged involvement with Russian state agencies. In summer 2023, Christo Grozev discovered evidence that Marsalek was living in Russia under the false identity of Alexander Ivanovich Schmidt, and had additionally been travelling under that name using a French passport.

The Austrian authorities report that Egisto Ott received €20,000 for a SINA laptop from Marsalek. In 2024, at the UK court case Marsalek was described as the person who coordinated the "Bulgarian spy ring" and paid one of the suspects Orlin Roussev £204,000 for his operations. Marsalek and Roussev remained in frequent contact, exchanging over 70,000 messages in Telegram between 2020–2024. Their primary targets were Christo Grozev and Roman Dobrokhotov.