Entrepreneur Orlin R., 45, and former Wirecard CEO Jan Marsalek have one thing in common: enthusiasm for technology. When Marsalek was still running the Aschheim-based payment service provider Wirecard, the two regularly exchanged emails over particularly robust and eavesdropping-proof mobile phones. R. sends Marsalek photographs of devices that he especially recommends to Marsalek. R. was already living in Britain at the time.

After the collapse of Wirecard in June 2020, a lot gradually became known about Marsalek’s contacts with the secret services, as well as his connections with Russian mine hunting teams traveling in the Middle East. In this context, Orlin R. could have been much more than a simple technology nerd with whom the director of Wirecard, supposedly hiding in Moscow since June 19, 2020, exchanged ideas.

Hearing in a British court

The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) accuses Orlin R. and four other Bulgarian citizens of spying for Russia between August 30, 2020 and February 8, 2023. Three suspects have been detained since early February 2023. They are They are scheduled to be tried early next year.

When they were arrested in Great Britain, the police seized, among other things, several false passports and driving licenses. A hearing took place this morning at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in London. All three jailed suspects were present.

According to the investigating authorities, the accused, as well as “another person named Jan Marsalek and other unknown persons joined together to gather information,” according to the CPS. The background was “to support the Russian state in carrying out hostile actions against certain targets, including the possible kidnapping of these targets,” the agency continues. The defendants deny the allegations.

Marsalek as the mastermind of the spy network?

British authorities attribute a key role in the activities of the “spy network” to the former director of Wirecard. Orlin R. acted “on instructions from Jan Marsalek.” The available evidence would show that the former board of directors of Wirecard once again acted as “intermediaries of the Russian state.”

Through Telegram they exchanged ideas, including on the acquisition of technical equipment and support in case of hacker attacks. The messaging service was already Marsalek’s preferred communication platform during his time at Wirecard.

According to the CPS’s conclusions, Marsalek also commissioned R. to observe a NATO base in Germany. Consulted by BR24, Marsalek’s lawyer, Frank Eckstein, did not comment on the accusations by the British authorities.

Marsalek’s letter sparked unrest in Wirecard process

After Marsalek left a small Austrian airport at the end of June 2020, first for Belarus and then probably for Moscow, things around the former Wirecard board member were quiet for a long time.

At the end of July this year, Marsalek gave another sign of life through his lawyer: in the form of a letter addressed to the Munich Regional Court. Former Wirecard board member Markus Braun and two other defendants have been answering for more than nine months for their role in the bankruptcy of the former DAX group.

In the letter, Marsalek states, among other things, that he had followed the course of this negotiation. “If necessary, an additional statement on various topics will be made later. […] delivered.”