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Edited by
David Rocks16, 2020Marsalek, a trim Austrian with a buzz cut
and a taste for bespoke suits, lay on the ground,
muttering and crying for a good half-hour before
his girlfriend scooped him up and drove him home.
The other attendees shrugged it off as a response
to the Wirecard grind—perhaps overly dramatic—or
because he’d recently turned 40. But a few weeks
later, it became clear something much bigger was
afoot as Wirecard tumbled into insolvency and
Marsalek went missing in one of Germany’s big-
gest corporate scandals ever.
Suspicions of wrongdoing had swirled around
Wirecard for years, yet auditors signed off quar-
ter after quarter on books that now appear toOn a cool Saturday evening in March, Jan Marsalek
headed across Munich for dinner at the home of
a friend. It was a welcome respite for the chief
operating officer of German payment processor
Wirecard AG, as the previous few weeks had been
particularly exacting. Allegations of accounting
fraud at the fintech company were growing louder,
and the press, auditors, and even Wirecard’s
board wanted answers—from Marsalek. The
small group, including a Russian diplomat, dug
into a barbecue spread washed down with ample
amounts of vodka, and by the end of the evening
Marsalek had consumed two bottles by himself.
Then things got weird.rgBusies kk erF I N A N C E
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