Germany to Public: Help Us Find This Guy

Jan Marsalek is accused of massive fraud with former company Wirecard
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 13, 2020 1:21 PM CDT
Germany to Public: Help Us Find This Guy
This wanted poster, provided by the German police, shows Jan Marsalek, the former 'Wirecard' chief operating officer.   (BKA via AP)

He was once seen as a top exec at a wildly successful tech firm in Germany. Now, though, Jan Marsalek is on Interpol's most wanted list, reports Bloomberg. Authorities in Germany also are appealing to the public for help in tracking down the 40-year-old Austrian, who may or may not have fled the country when evidence of massive fraud turned up at his now-bankrupt company, Wirecard. "Fraud in the billions," reads the large print on wanted posters now in wide distribution. They show a clean-shaven Marsalek along with a photo of him in a full beard, notes the AP.

Marsalek has been on the lam since the payment services company went down the tubes in June, after auditors concluded that $2 billion on the ledgers likely never existed in the first place. Execs—Marsalek was chief operating officer—are accused of cooking the books to make the company look far more profitable than it actually was, explains the Wall Street Journal. That paved the way for Wirecard to raise nearly $4 billion in loans, and all those funds are believed to be lost. (Former CEO Markus Braun has been arrested.)

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