Lithuanian FinTech ‘stole €100 million’ from Wirecard

Lithuania-based payments company UAB Finolita Unio is suspected to have stolen over €100 million from Wirecard weeks before the company collapsed.

Some of the money is believed to have been channelled to Wirecard’s ex-chief operating officer Jan Marsalek, who is currently on Interpol’s most-wanted list after fleeing before the company filed for insolvency, according to a report by The Financial Times (FT.)

The 40-year-old Austrian national is regarded as a central figure in the alleged accounting scandal.

He disappeared in June, shortly after Markus Braun, the former chief executive of Wirecard, was arrested in Germany on suspicion of falsifying company revenue when auditors uncovered a €1.9 billion black hole in the company’s accounts.

Documents seen by the FT show that the Lithuanian FinTech appears to have processed some of the money that was siphoned off prior to the company’s collapse.

People familiar with the investigation told the newspaper that German prosecutors are currently looking into the matter and have been in touch with Lithuanian authorities.

They suspect that part of a €100m loan granted by Wirecard in March 2020 to a subsidiary of the FinTech’s owner, and processed by the Lithuanian company, was secretly passed on to Marsalek.

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