"One has to be guilty": Wirecard chat logs have appeared

The Wirecard scandal gets a bizarre note: While a key Wirecard figure is in custody and unpacking it towards the investigators, chat minutes of the fleeting ex-executive are revealed. In it he brags about alleged contacts to secret services.

The fleeting ex-board member of the Munich financial service provider Wirecard, Jan Marsalek, has not contradicted allegations made against him in connection with the accounting scandal, according to a newspaper report. "I do not deny the allegations either," quoted the "Handelsblatt" from a private communication by Marsalek with a confidant about the messenger service Telegram. Marsalek wrote in the exchange on June 21st: "One has to be guilty and I am the obvious choice."

Wirecard 1.97

According to the report, he uses the chat to show off his contacts with the CIA, the Mossad and other intelligence services – and brags about an alleged millions. When asked whether ex-Wirecard CEO Markus Braun was surprised by the crash of the Dax company, Marsalek says: "It would be bad if he hadn't been." And further: "First of all, it's about protecting the company, employees and customers. A simplified narrative helps here." He emphasized: "So someone has to be to blame – and I qualify very well for it." However, it was just difficult to reach, wrote Marsalek.

The whereabouts of the former Wirecard board are still unknown. He had had his lawyer tell him not to face the judiciary. Marsalek was responsible for day-to-day operations at Wirecard. The rumor that Wirecard sells credit cards to secret services is "not entirely wrong," the newspaper quotes from the chats. He has "multiple passports, like any good secret agent," said Marsalek.

Detained manager

In the meantime, a central accused made a confession in the billion-dollar accounting scandal. The ex-boss of the Wirecard subsidiary Cardsystems Middle East, who was arrested on suspicion of fraud, granted an involvement in the trial of the Munich public prosecutor, according to his lawyer. "My client voluntarily submitted to the procedure and, unlike others, stands by his individual responsibility," said his lawyer, Nicolas Frühsorger. The Munich public prosecutor's office declined to comment.

The German manager had turned himself in at the beginning of last week, the prosecutor announced on the day of his arrest. For this he traveled to Munich from the United Arab Emirates. In the Emirate of Dubai, Cardsystems Middle East played a central role in Wirecard's scandalous Asian business. There, the investigators believe a focus of the alleged billion-dollar manipulations of Wirecard's business figures.

Another important subsidiary of the payment processor is based in Dublin. In the Irish capital, the police had searched Wirecard's business premises a few days ago at the request of German law enforcement officers.

According to the prosecutor, the Dubai manager was questioned on the day of his arrest. Then he spoke again in detail to the investigators. "However, we will only speak to the Munich public prosecutor's office about the details," said his lawyer. The manager is in custody due to the risk of escape and blackout. The arrest warrant is based, among other things, on the urgent suspicion of serious community fraud.

The company had admitted that the annual balance sheet lacked 1.9 billion euros and that the money at two Filipino banks probably did not exist. The share price of the Dax group crashed, the company filed for bankruptcy. The prosecutor's office is investigating multiple managers for fraud, breach of trust, falsification of accounts and market manipulation.

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