Ex-Austrian MP To Be Tried For Helping A Billionaire Fraudster Escape To Belarus

Jan Marsalek now lives in Moscow.

The Vienna prosecutor's office has filed charges against former Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) deputy Thomas Schellenbacher for allegedly helping a top executive of German payment company Wirecard Jan Marsalek, who is wanted by international intelligence agencies, to flee to Belarus, from where he then traveled to Russia, writes German Wave.

Schellenbacher allegedly helped the fugitive get to the airport Bad Wöslau Airport.me/dw_belarus/18322">"Deutsche Welle".

Schelenbacher allegedly helped the fugitive get to Bad Wöslau airport near Vienna and then to Belarus by "organizing his flight," the prosecutor told AFP news agency. The date of the trial, according to a spokeswoman for the Vienna court, has not yet been set. The charge was brought in May last year, but the public became aware of it only now, the agency specifies. Schelenbach faces up to two years in prison.

Jan Marsalek is an Austrian businessman. In 2020, a financial scandal erupted over the disappearance of 1.9 billion euros from company accounts, the Munich prosecutor's office is investigating him for financial fraud, there are also ongoing investigations in the UK and Austria for espionage and working for Russian intelligence, Marsalek is suspected of helping to spy on investigative journalists, including Christo Grozev.

The investigation by Bellingcat, Der Spiegel and The Insider found that on June 19, 2020, Marsalek flew to Minsk hours after he was fired. The investigators also found out that Marsalek now lives in the Russian Federation, got a passport in the name of German Bazhenov, works for the FSB and travels to the occupied territories of Ukraine.

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