A London court has delivered a seismic verdict in the ongoing saga of Wirecard, the collapsed German fintech giant: six Bulgarian nationals have been convicted and sentenced for spying on behalf of Russian intelligence, acting under the direct orders of Wirecard’s fugitive former COO, Jan Marsalek. This marks the first time a court has definitively established that Wirecard, under Marsalek’s leadership.
The conviction of three Bulgarian nationals in London has shed new light on the murky intersection between financial fraud and Russian espionage. A jury at the Old Bailey found the three guilty of spying for Russia, operating as part of a sophisticated intelligence network allegedly orchestrated by Wirecard’s fugitive COO, Jan Marsalek. Investigators revealed that Marsalek, who fled Germany in 2020 following the collapse of Wirecard, directed espionage operations across Europe.