Handelsblatt links former Wirecard top executive to Russian RFI Bank

The former chief operating officer of the collapsed German fintech group Wirecard, Jan Marsalek, has close ties to Russian financial circles. The newspaper Handelsblatt reports, citing its own sources.

According to the publication, Marsalek regularly traveled to Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod, where he presumably met with representatives of Tatfondbank and Radiotechbank. Shortly after this, in 2017, Tatfondbank’s license was revoked. The Radiotechbank license was revoked in 2019.

Also, according to the publication, Jan Marsalek was negotiating with the Russian RFI Bank. could have conducted negotiations in Russia regarding transactions through Wirecard related to gambling, the newspaper writes.

According to the Telegram channel BadBank, ‘almost all MasterCard and MIR traffic for all popular online casinos went through RFI Bank via dummy online wallets’.

Source: BadBank Telegram channel.

Meanwhile, the Vulkan casino contract was drawn up as a partnership with a supplier of pools and components for them, according to the source.

In a ForkLog statement, representatives of RFI Bank said that despite the existing contract with Wirecard, they did not negotiate transactions related to gambling:

“We have no traffic related to online casinos. The bank operates within the legal framework. Claims by several anonymous channels of alleged involvement by the bank in gaming traffic are defamatory.”

RFI Bank also added that no transactions with Wirecard were conducted and the contract was terminated on the bank’s initiative.

Similar ties of the Wirecard executive had already drawn the attention of Russian law enforcement in 2017. Russian media reported that through Wirecard Marsalek was establishing business contacts with operators of Russian online casinos and gambling sites.

Wirecard collapsed in June after €1.9 billion in missing funds were discovered. On June 25 the company filed for bankruptcy. Within a week the value of Wirecard’s shares fell 99% — from €104 to €2.

The former Wirecard CEO Markus Braun was arrested on suspicion of falsifying data on cash balances in the company’s accounts.

Jan Marsalek, after his disappearance, carried out a large transfer in bitcoins and is allegedly hiding in Russia under the control of the SVR. Marsalek has been placed on an international arrest warrant on suspicion of financial fraud.

Earlier this August, Visa approved a fine against RFI Bank for high-risk operations. The bank noted that the penalties concern merchant clients, that an information attack was mounted against the organization, and that the amount of $500,000 “does not correspond to reality.”

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