Wirecard ex-COO Jan Marsalek’s India deals in focus

A pair of Indian lawsuits allege Wirecard AG’s former chief operating officer (COO) played a central role in deals that were later mired in disputes over valuations and unpaid fees.

In one of the civil cases, the previous owners of Indian payments company Hermes I-Tickets Pvt. Ltd, are suing former COO Jan Marsalek alongside Wirecard over allegations that it made false claims about how much it paid to them at the time. The suit alleges Marsalek took part in negotiations leading to the acquisition of Hermes by a Mauritius-based private equity fund called Emerging Market Investment Fund (EMIF) in 2015. The second case, for unpaid consultancy fees, is against the Mauritian fund EMIF, which acquired a majority stake in Indian travel firm Goomo Orbit and alleges Marsalek played a central role in negotiating that deal.

A lawyer for Marsalek based in Munich declined to comment on the cases or discuss his client. A Wirecard spokesperson declined to comment, too. Meanwhile, Marsalek’s whereabouts are unknown. Authorities in the Philippines say he may have passed through the country before boarding a flight to China on 24 June. However, they are also investigating whether immigration documents showing he entered the Philippines were fake, Dow Jones reported on Friday.

Wirecard was tipped into a fullblown scandal and filed for insolvency with a German court after disclosing last month that €1.9 billion were missing from its balance sheet. The lawsuits offer a glimpse into the complexity of the task facing investigators trying to decipher the finances of a company with divisions and interests across the globe, and establish what role senior management figures played in the events leading up to Wirecard’s insolvency.