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reThe Wirecard scandal, especially the follies of volatile former board member Jan Marsalek, he draws wide circles and now pulls one after another into the abyss, which his entourage recently thought was on the safe side. This is what happened this week to a Munich businessman who was among Marsalek’s select circle of confidants until the summer, in fact until the mild June day when the Wirecard manager went into hiding; to this day he is being sought with an international arrest warrant. Apparently he had not revealed anything to his friend, the former director of TUI V., about the departure.
Bettina Weiguny
Freelance writer on the economics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
Suddenly the friend was no longer sitting on a bulging sack of money by grace of Marsalek, but on a time bomb that was now blown up: on Tuesday, the man was arrested, his assets are frozen according to information from this newspaper, the mansion Marsalek, in the businessman V. Residió, was completely cleared by the police. Now many start-ups that have received capital from there fear for their future, specifically for the millions that were promised to them. One victim of the development is the Getnow food delivery service, one of the young companies in the Marsalek orbit.
But one after another. Let’s start with the villa in Munich-Bogenhausen. This is where Jan Marsalek was a judge for years, where he established a mercenary force in Libya with dubious guests, and where he connected young founders with wealthy investors. Marsalek called the villa his “home”, but the official tenant of the magnificent property was businessman V. After Marsalek went underground, he suddenly found himself alone with a monthly rent of almost 50,000 euros. V. couldn’t find the money.
Who is behind the “Getnow Holding”?
Worse still: the flow of money from his holding company called “IMS Capital” dried up in one fell swoop. On October 22, V. had to file for bankruptcy for the IMS company, which investigators said was drawing on dubious sources in Marsalek. This, in turn, affects quite a few new companies very sensitively. IMS owned shares in about 20 young companies, including Munich’s online supermarket Getnow, which also had to file for bankruptcy last week. “If a major investor suddenly severs, it is difficult,” says a partner. Payments have not been made for a few months, a new investor could not be found in a hurry, also due to the many question marks left.
Because what about the other major investor V. and Marsalek negotiated? Who is behind the Isle of Man-based “Getnow Holding”, whose sinister parent company is also counted as part of the shadowy kingdom of Marsalek?
The Munich prosecutor’s office is also asking itself many questions. She hopes that entrepreneur V. will clarify where the Marsalek fortune came from and how he pushed it back and forth around the world. On Tuesday he arrested V. The prosecution: It is said that he quickly diverted 2.5 million euros from IMS before bankruptcy. However, the prosecutor points out that the arrest warrant was suspended under adequate conditions. V. could “leave pretrial detention at any time after its completion.” Furthermore, the investigation against V. “has nothing to do with the investigation on Wirecard.”
This is the Marsalek scam. One never has anything to do with the other directly, but indirectly. Marsalek had nothing to do directly with the village and IMS Capital, indirectly a lot. Marsalek was never directly involved in investing, he still often sat at the table, in any function; either as a manager of Wirecard, as a private individual, as an agent or even as an undercover agent for the Austrian intelligence service. The Federal Ministry of Justice classifies it as such, as it is now known.
Whether V. is released in the next few days will likely depend on the amount of the deposit. His private fortune was arrested and he no longer has access to it. Two business partners of IMS have made the corresponding claims, the accounts and assets of Administrator V. have been frozen. And according to eyewitnesses, the police have removed several objects of art from the Marsalek villa on Prinzregentenstrasse.
