How Wirecard’s Jan Marsalek went from fraudster to spy
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Hot Money, the award-winning podcast series from the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries, is back with a third season.
In 2020, the Financial Times exposed a €2bn fraud at Wirecard, a high-flying German fintech. Many thought that was the end of the story.
But for FT reporter Sam Jones, it was just the beginning. This season on Hot Money: Agent of Chaos, Sam investigates Wirecard’s chief operating officer who vanished just as Wirecard collapsed — and who turned out to also be a Russian spy.
From an Ibizan sting operation to an attempted takeover of the Austrian intelligence service, his reporting spirals into a world of warlords, espionage and disinformation.
All in an attempt to answer two questions: who is the real Jan Marsalek? And what does his secret life reveal about the powerful forces he serves?
New episodes of the eight-part season will drop every Tuesday.
You can listen to Hot Money: Agent of Chaos below or subscribe and listen to new episodes on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts.
Episode 8: Matryoshka
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 7: From Russia With Love
A Marsalek-backed ring of operatives goes on trial in the UK for espionage. A treasure trove of text messages reveals their inner workings.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 6: Maestro
Back in Vienna, Sam investigates another Marsalek plot. One that nearly toppled Austria’s intelligence agency.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 5: A Different Set of Rules
How does one become a spy? Sam speaks with a former Russian intelligence officer about how Marsalek might have been recruited. And to what ends.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 4: Backbearings
On the ground in Austria and Germany, Sam digs deep into Marsalek’s past. His odd habits. His strange house. The hypnotic effect he had on former colleagues. And how he is remembered by childhood friends.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 3: Thrill Seeking
Sam tracks down an old contact in Tunisia, a former UN official living off grid. He reveals how he ended up involved in one of Jan Marsalek’s wildest schemes.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 2: The Friendship Society
As Sam arrives in Vienna, a political bomb explodes. A secretly recorded video exposes ties between the far right and Russia, plunging the Austrian government into crisis and revealing a world where people such as Jan Marsalek can thrive.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Episode 1: The Bribe
A series of clandestine lunch meetings leads Sam’s editor to send him off to Vienna in search of one man.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com
Trailer — Hot Money: Agent of Chaos
Sam Jones is the FT’s European security correspondent, covering intelligence and espionage, influence operations, cyber security, illicit finance and political extremism across the continent.
Sam joined the FT in 2007, and has worked in a variety of roles including FT investigations and postings as a foreign correspondent in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Between 2013 and 2017 he was the FT’s defence and security editor (during which he covered the rise of Isis and Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine).
Sam has won several journalism awards in the US and UK, most recently for his work on the Wirecard scandal and exposing Jan Marsalek as a Russian spy.
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