Bulgarians confessed to espionage on behalf of ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek

A group Bulgarians According to the London public prosecutor’s office, on behalf of the fugitive ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek spied in Germany. Among other things, the suspects spied on US military facilities where Ukrainian soldiers were trained, prosecutor Alison Morgan said on Thursday at the start of the trial in London. The three defendants – two women and a man – had endangered numerous lives.

The prosecution accuses the two women, aged 30 and 33, and a 39-year-old man, all of whom live in Great Britain, of spying on people and places. The espionage activities are said to have taken place in London as well as in Stuttgart, Vienna, Valencia and the Balkan state of Montenegro.

They are part of a spy network that Marsalek led. The three accused denied the allegations. Two other men, Orlin Roussev and Bizer Dzhambazov, had already confessed to being part of the spy ring, Morgan told the jury at London’s Central Criminal Court, also known as the Old Bailey. Roussev led the group and in turn received orders from Marsalek, the prosecutor said. There is no question that the spy ring exists because Roussev and Dzhambazov “accepted that they were involved in a conspiracy.” Among other things, the spies used false identities, used professional equipment and prepared detailed reports in return for larger payments.

Spy ring involved in six major operations

According to the prosecutor, the spy ring was allegedly involved in six major operations. Among other things, the US base “Patch Barracks” near Stuttgart was scouted at the end of 2022. Another victim was the journalist Christo Grozev, who worked for the investigative website Bellingcat and reported there, among other things, on the poisoning of Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury in 2018. Roman Dobrokhotov, editor-in-chief of the investigative media The Insider, as well as the former Kazakh politician Bergey Ryskaliyev, who has now received asylum in Great Britain, and the Russian dissident Kiril Kachur were also targeted.

The accused had personally taken great risks, said Morgan. Among other things, there was talk of using the two women as “honey traps”: They would have had sexual contact with the victims in order to obtain further information. The defendants could now argue that they didn’t know what was really going on or that they were misled, Morgan said. “But it’s inconceivable that they didn’t know what they were doing and why they were doing it.”

Suspicion of fraud against a native Austrian

Marsalek was considered the leading head of the financial services provider Wirecard, which collapsed in 2020. The Munich public prosecutor’s office is investigating the Austrian-born man on suspicion of fraud and has put him on an international wanted list. He is also accused of spying for Russia. His trace was lost shortly after the collapse of Wirecard in Belarus; according to media reports, he was later suspected to be in Russia.