Share this article
Two Arrested for Orchestrating Escape of Wirecard Exec Accused of Fraud
The collapsed financial firm had previously supplied cards to several cryptocurrency companies.
Updated Sep 14, 2021, 11:00 a.m. Published Jan 25, 2021, 12:46 p.m.
Two Austrian men accused of helping Wirecard's former chief operating officer escape to Belarus have been arrested by police in Vienna.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
- According to a report from the Financial Times on Monday, a former senior official of the Austrian secret service and a former right-wing politician were both apprehended in connection with Jan Marsalek’s escape.
- Marsalek, an Austrian citizen, is on Interpol’s most-wanted list for allegedly masterminding the corporate fraud that ended with Wirecard's collapse and an estimated €1.9 billion (US$2.3 billion) missing.
- Police documents seen by the FT confirm Marsalek escaped to Belarus from Austria last summer using a private jet he paid for with cash.
- Wirecard's troubles caused issues at the time for cryptocurrency firms Crypto.com and TenX, to which it had supplied payment cards.
- Among the accusations of embezzlement, Marsalek is alleged to have sent large amounts of bitcoin to Russia from Dubai, where Wirecard had operated "dubious" services, according to previous reports.
See also: Wanted Wirecard Exec Said to Be Sheltered by Secret Service in Russia
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
U.S. CFTC's Pham Moves for Do-Over on 'Actual Delivery' Guidance on Crypto
In what are likely her final days at the agency, the acting chairman checked another box from President Donald Trump's crypto agenda.
What to know:
- One of the leading U.S. regulators for crypto activity, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, has scrapped its earlier definition for how assets change hands in a crypto commodities transaction.
- Acting Chairman Caroline Pham said the earlier guidance on "actual delivery" was withdrawn as part of President Donald Trump's efforts to create friendly crypto policies.
Top Stories
