Fugitive Ex-Wirecard Exec Jan Marsalek Tied to Multibillion-Dollar Laundering Ring

Fugitive former Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek has been linked to a sprawling, multibillion-dollar money laundering network that British investigators say connects street-level drug dealers in the UK to sanctioned Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin’s security services, the Financial Times reported.

The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) believes two laundering networks known as Smart and TGR were used by individuals associated with Russian intelligence in an effort to channel funds to a Bulgarian spy ring Marsalek allegedly ran in the UK, the FT reported.

The spies were tasked with surveillance and sabotage operations across Europe on behalf of Russia’s security services. The Bulgarian network was led by Orlin Roussev, who was jailed for 10 years and eight months in May along with five accomplices. All six were either convicted of spying for Russia or pleaded guilty to doing so, according to the FT.

Smart and TGR sit at the heart of a years-long NCA investigation dubbed Operation Destabilise, which has mapped how the networks move money for criminals and individuals under western sanctions using cryptocurrency, the newspaper reported.

Couriers in Britain and other countries collect bulk cash generated by narcotics trafficking, firearms supply and organized immigration crime, according to the agency. In return, cryptocurrency is transferred to accounts controlled by the networks, which then arrange for the value to be made available to criminals or sanctioned individuals abroad.

According to the NCA, people “associated with” the Russian intelligence services attempted to use Smart to send funds to the Bulgarian spy ring in the summer of 2023, after most of its members had already been arrested, the FT said. At that time, Marsalek was based in Moscow.

Investigators say the same system has been exploited by a wide cast of clients — from Russian oligarchs seeking to evade sanctions to the Kinahan cartel, the Irish crime group involved in large-scale cocaine trafficking and linked to multiple contract killings, the FT reported.

Marsalek, Wirecard’s former chief operating officer, fled to Moscow after the payments giant collapsed in June 2020, when auditors discovered a €1.9-billion hole in its balance sheet that prosecutors say was the product of a massive fraud. Marsalek remains the subject of an Interpol Red Notice over his alleged role in the Wirecard scandal.

According to the FT, Marsalek has since operated as a freelance intelligence contractor for Russian spy agencies, using the Bulgarian network to conduct operations across Europe. Despite the UK’s espionage case against the group, Marsalek himself has not been charged with spying by British authorities.

Smart is allegedly run by Russian national Ekaterina Zhdanova, who has previously appeared on the covers of Russian business magazines and was sanctioned by the United States in 2023, according to the FT. She is currently in custody in France. TGR is headed by George Rossi, a Ukrainian national born in Russia who is also under U.S. sanctions.