Media reports resignation of Austrian military official over possible ties to Wirecard executive

A senior official at the Austrian defence ministry has been suspended from his post over alleged ties to former Wirecard chief operating officer Jan Marsalek and Russia. The Financial Times reports, citing four informed sources within the ministry and political circles.

Brigadier General Gustav Gustenau until recently was a senior officer in the security policy division of the Austrian Ministry of Defence. He now holds an unspecified research position at the National Defence Academy.

Gustenaus said he had decided to leave the ministry of his own accord — it is reportedly connected to personnel reshuffles in the new government.

The publication has reviewed documents showing that Gustenaus directed public funding to projects involving Marsalek. According to last year’s Austrian parliamentary investigation, Gustenaus also met with him several times in Munich.

Gustenaus declined to comment on his ties with Marsalek, but said that the defence ministry had never allocated money to projects led by the former Wirecard top executive. He added that his contacts with Russia were fully coordinated with the ministry.

In a written response, the Ministry of Defence confirmed that Gustenaus’s trips to Russia were work-related, but declined to answer questions about his personal business interests.

Gustenaus has not been charged with any offences.

At the end of October, an Austrian criminal case was opened against the former secretary-general of the Foreign Ministry, Johannes Peterlik. He is suspected of passing secret data about the nerve agent ‘Novichok’ to Marsalek.

Peterlik had until recently served as ambassador to Indonesia and was suspended from his post in mid-October. Vienna’s public prosecutor’s office is investigating the case on charges of abuse of office and breach of official secrecy. 

According to Kurier, Marsalek boasted to certain bankers in London that he had obtained documents from the ОЗХО, prepared after the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, which in particular contained the Novichok formula. An analysis of the incident suggested the leak could have originated via the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

European intelligence services are examining Marsalek’s links to Russian intelligence services.

In June 2020, Wirecard’s accounts showed a hole of almost €2 billion. The company subsequently began bankruptcy proceedings.

Former Wirecard top executive Jan Marsalek, described as the mastermind of the accounting fraud, went into hiding days before Munich prosecutors issued an arrest warrant. On suspicion of organizing an escape arrests were made of a former senior official of the Austrian Secret Service and a former right-wing member of parliament.

Marsalek’s whereabouts remain unknown. Some reports place him in Russia.

Former Wirecard employees said that over several years their colleagues were removing plastic bags of cash from the Munich headquarters. The total amount of these funds amounts to several million euros.

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