Legal battle over suspected spy’s role in company linked to Malta

Jan Marsalek, a fugitive and suspected Russian spy, has been named in a London civil court dispute as a secret financier of a 2016 Libyan oil project linked to a Maltese company.

Marsalek’s alleged role in financing the 2016 purchase of three onshore oil drilling rigs by Lorasco Limited in Libya has led to a legal rift between two former business partners in the venture, who offer differing accounts about when they first knew of Marsalek’s involvement in the deal.

Ahmed Ben Halim

Ahmed Ben Halim, a director of the Malta-based LH Severus, whose portfolio of companies includes Lorasco, claims to have only found out in 2022 that Marsalek was behind the company EAL Energy, which invested in the drilling rigs.

LH Severus was founded by Halim in 2011 as an investment vehicle in Libya. It was originally set up in the Cayman Islands and was recently registered in Malta.

A spokesperson for Ben Halim and his companies told Times of Malta that his former business partner Joe Bowman only disclosed Marsalek’s role in EAL Energy in 2022.

After this discovery, the spokesperson said Ben Halim and his companies took “all reasonable and proper steps to understand the legal implications of that disclosure and to act on the advice received”.

On the run

Marsalek went on the run in 2020 following the dramatic implosion of German payment firm Wirecard.

As Wirecard’s chief operating officer, he is the subject of an international manhunt given his suspected role in the multi-billion-euro fraud that led to the company’s collapse.

British police have since named Marsalek as the leader of a Russian spy ring that operated in Europe.

Bowman, Ben Halim’s former business partner, alleges that Ben Halim knew from day one that funds for Lorasco’s oil drilling rigs investment came from Marsalek.

Damviol Limited, a company owned by Bowman’s wife, in October filed a lawsuit in the UK courts accusing Ben Halim of “falsely denying” knowledge of Marsalek’s involvement, and using it as a pretext to avoid transferring EAL Energy’s stake in Lorasco to Damviol.

The legal claim cites e-mail correspondence and documentation pertaining to a bridge loan guaranteed by Marsalek for the Lorasco investment as evidence that Halim knew of his involvement from the outset.

The lawsuit was filed against Halim and four companies linked to him. 

Ben Halim’s spokesperson told Times of Malta that Bowman is understood to have been a “close personal business associate of Marsalek,” and in 2024, demanded shares he appears to have known were owned by Marsalek to be transferred to him.

The spokesperson told Times of Malta the share transfer has been refused due to “money laundering concerns” stemming from Bowman’s alleged disclosure in 2022 that Marsalek was behind EAL Energy.

“Mr Ben Halim and the companies named [in the lawsuit] deny the allegations and will vigorously defend themselves against what they consider to be untrue and vexatiously motivated allegations made by Damviol, a company owned by Victoria Bowman and controlled by Joe Bowman,” Halim’s spokesperson said.

The UK lawsuit also claims that Halim has had various meetings with Marsalek to discuss the Lorasco investment.

Ben Halim’s spokesperson denies this, saying any prior dealings by Halim and his companies with Marsalek were unconnected to the Lorasco investment, were brief, and were arranged by Bowman at a time before Marsalek’s “criminal conduct” in Wirecard was known.

Marsalek’s legal representatives did not respond to a request for comment from Times of Malta.

Who is Jan Marsalek?

Marsalek went on the run in 2020, after the Financial Times exposed a €2 billion hole in Wirecard’s accounts, which were supposedly held in the Philippines.

While Wirecard’s CEO Markus Braun was arrested over the fraud, Marsalek fled.

Interpol issued an international “red notice” for his arrest.

Media investigations suggest Marsalek was recruited by Russian intelligence in 2014.

A 2023 investigation by British police alleged he was a Russian spy directing espionage operations across Europe.

A trial in London, which concluded in Marc,h heard how British prosecutors and police say in the years since going on the run, Marsalek directed teams of spies to do the bidding of his Moscow handlers.

According to a joint investigation carried out by  Der Standard, Der Spiegel, ZDF, PBS and The Insider published in September, Marsalek is living in Moscow under the name Alexander Nelidov, with close ties to Russia’s FSB security service.