Live-streaming soldiers torturing prisoners in Libya, manipulating migrant flows into southern Europe based on political power shifts, and using European secret services for cover.
These might sound like plot points from an unreleased James Bond movie. But they are increasingly believed to be part of a very real and sinister scheme that would have changed southern Europe forever.
Wirecard, a once-celebrated German fintech firm, collapsed in 2020, revealing a €1.9 billion hole in its accounts and shaking confidence in Germany's financial oversight. But some believe Wirecard’s ambitions extended beyond financial fraud, hinting at a geopolitical plot that could have reshaped Southern Europe.
At the heart of this plot was Jan Marsalek, Wirecard's enigmatic COO. Marsalek has been on the run for years. But some lawmakers in Germany and Austria believe he is guilty of more than just fraud. They say Marsalek’s work also involved Mediterranean geopolitics – and that he had Russian backing to do it.
For the past months, I have been working on a documentary exploring this scandal and speaking to some of the people who are uncovering new information about Wirecard, Marsalek and the mysterious plans he harboured.
"The plan was called Project Panther," German MP Kay Gottschalk, Chairman of the Wirecard Inquiry, told Rakkont Media during an interview from Berlin's Bundestag.
And for him, “it’s not just an economic story, one of fraud, but it’s also a secret service and intelligence community story for me.”
Project Panther was a plan that started with the hostile takeover of Deutsche Bank.
At the time, Wirecard and Deutsche Bank had roughly the same market valuation, around €14 billion, despite Deutsche Bank being one of the largest financial institutions in Europe with assets worth €1.4 trillion. By merging with Deutsche Bank, Marsalek and Wirecard's CEO, Markus Braun, aimed to cover Wirecard's €1.9 billion shortfall and create a new financial giant called "Wirebank." This would have embedded Wirecard deeply into Germany's economic fabric, giving Marsalek unprecedented influence over European financial systems and political structures.
Wirecard was lauded by German authorities, and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel even promoted the company to China’s Xi Jinping. Despite Financial Times reports exposing Wirecard's fraud, Germany’s financial regulator, BaFin, dismissed these claims and took unprecedented measures to protect the company, including banning short selling of its stock. All this happened under the watch of then-Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, now Chancellor of Germany.
Marsalek’s ambitions were not limited to financial domination.
The Financial Times, key to exposing the extent of the entire Wirecard scandal, reported that as early as 2015, Marsalek began looking towards Libya with plans to build a private army of 15,000 to 20,000 mercenaries to control Libya’s southern border.
In June 2017, Marsalek offered €200,000 to UN crisis worker Kilian Kleinschmidt for a study on rebuilding Libya.
Kleinschmidt, initially interested in helping refugees, withdrew when what he believed to be Marsalek’s true intentions - training a militia to patrol Libya’s border and restrict migration - became clear.
Minutes from a meeting held by Marsalek in February 2018, seen and corroborated by the Financial Times, reveal that Marsalek wanted an option to “close the border” - an option which could then be sold to EU countries as “solving the migration crisis”. Investigators believe this militia would have been used to manipulate migrant flows into Europe, using desperate refugees as a political weapon to influence elections and pressure European governments.
To implement this plan, Marsalek sought support from the Russian Wagner Group, a paramilitary organisation linked to the Kremlin. Former employees and investigative sources confirmed that Marsalek even traveled with Wagner operatives to Palmyra, Syria, after the fall of ISIS, strengthening his ties with Russian military interests.
Germany’s Der Spiegel revealed even darker plans. Marsalek allegedly envisioned live-streaming the militia's brutal encounters with migrants and rival factions online, they reported, turning it into grotesque entertainment for a global audience, who could then fund the militia with live donations.
Gottschalk emphasised the gravity of Marsalek's ambitions: "If this plan happened, with the takeover of Deutsche Bank and Libya’s borders, then they’d be one of the most powerful companies in the entire world." He added, "If you control the border of Libya, you also control the politics of Europe. He would do the dirty jobs we can’t do—can the German government send an army to Libya to stop migrants flowing into Europe? Never."
The German government has since ended the Wirecard inquiry. Gottschalk wants it to be reopened, as he believes the intelligence community is deeply involved in the rise of Wirecard and more needs to be revealed.
"You can't follow through on a plan as audacious as this without the support of the intelligence community,’ he said, pointing towards some of the more interesting names to come out from his inquiry.
Marsalek’s ambitions were protected by a network of intelligence agents and former officials.
Rami El Obeidi aka ‘Dr. Rami’, former head of Libyan foreign intelligence, is believed to have assisted Marsalek in gathering intelligence on Wirecard’s critics and orchestrated false accusations against the Financial Times. German regulators, influenced by these allegations, investigated FT journalists, casting doubt on their reporting.
Marsalek’s influence can also be found across Austrian intelligence at various levels.
Both Martin Weiss, former head of Austria’s domestic security service, BVT, and his deputy, Egisto Ott, are suspected of leaking information to Moscow.
Ott was arrested. Weiss fled Europe and is believed to be living in Dubai.
In Ott’s 86-page arrest warrant, prosecutors accused him of, among other things, handing sensitive cellphone data to Russia and plotting a burglary into a journalist’s home, and assisting in a “Russian-ordered killing” in Germany. The same arrest warrant also accuses Weiss of facilitating undercover work for Russia’s military intelligence (GRU) and domestic intelligence (FSB) in Europe, alleging that Marsalek was part of an "intelligence cell" used by Russian intelligence.
Another key figure is Christoph Gsottbauer, a former elite officer in Austria’s Cobra unit. As managing director at PRM, a private security company, Gsottbauer allegedly used his surveillance expertise to assist Marsalek.
PRM is believed to have engaged in wiretapping and intimidation against Wirecard’s critics, including journalists, short sellers and financial auditors.
A private investigator told the European Parliament that Gsottbauer is believed to be living in Dubai, having left Austria two days after Marsalek. Gsottbauer has not faced formal charges.
Wirecard and Marsalek have attracted a lot of press in the years since Wirecard’s collapse. But many aspects remain shrouded in secrecy. Gottschalk believes this story transcends economic fraud, revealing a tale of espionage and power, one that we may be seeing more of the like in our digital, modern future.
For now, Marsalek remains at large, a fugitive in Moscow. Gottschalk has urged the German government to open another inquiry into the scandal, convinced that many elements of this spy thriller have yet to be uncovered.
Perhaps the mystery will only be unraveled when the person who first weaved it, does so.
"Someone told me that all great gangsters have such an ego, they’ll always want to talk about what they did,” Gottschalk said. “Maybe in 30 years, Marsalek will write a book that’ll become a New York Times bestseller, and then we’ll know the full story."
Wirecard: The Untold Story, produced by Rakkont Media, releases in Autumn 2024.
Johnathan Cilia is the founder of Rakkont Media and former editor-in-chief of Lovin Malta