Jan Marsalek Claims He Helped ‘Topple’ Former Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz
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The world’s most wanted Austrian claims to have brought down an Austrian chancellor, who in the meantime has co-founded a startup worth $3 billion.
The story sounds like something out of a spy thriller, but it is in investigation files. Last weekend, Axel Springer’s Global Reporters Network, including Bild and Britain’s Telegraph, published chat messages from Jan Marsalek, the fugitive former Wirecard executive. In them, he wrote in October 2021, about two weeks after Sebastian Kurz resigned, that "we" had "successfully toppled" the chancellor. The rest, he wrote, had been taken care of by "the rest of the chats."
What the Chats Say
The roughly 18 messages were addressed to Orlin Roussev, the head of a Bulgarian spy ring in London that worked for Russia and was convicted in the U.K. Marsalek used the alias "Rupert Ticz." British police seized the material when Roussev was arrested in early 2023, and it is now part of the Austrian investigation surrounding former intelligence officer Egisto Ott, who allegedly spied for Marsalek and was sentenced to 49 months in prison at first instance. Austria’s Interior Ministry has confirmed that the British reports are part of this investigation.
Specifically, Marsalek boasts of having played a role in the seizure of the phone of Thomas Schmid, the former secretary general of the finance ministry and later head of state holding company ÖBAG. The chats on that phone triggered investigations into political appointments and the so-called advertising affair, which led to raids on the chancellery in October 2021 and to Kurz’s resignation. Austrian investigators are now examining whether Marsalek’s "we" referred to Wirecard or to a Russian intelligence service.
Lots of Bragging, Little Evidence
The files contain no evidence supporting Marsalek’s claims. Schmid’s phone was seized in November 2019, long before the chat and as part of the Ibiza investigation. Schmid himself, now a key witness for Austria’s anti-corruption prosecutors, denies any contact with Marsalek. Ed Arnold of the British think tank RUSI considers it possible that Marsalek is exaggerating his role, and profil journalist Anna Thalhammer, who has investigated Marsalek, calls it bragging: the claims’ truth content is "not particularly high," she said.
Kurz himself reacted cautiously. At a business talk in Vienna, he spoke of "many question marks" and declined to speculate about motives. The investigation into the advertising affair has been running for five years, and Kurz says he is "optimistic." He won the case over alleged false testimony before the Ibiza parliamentary committee on appeal.
What Kurz Does Today
The 40-year-old rules out a return to politics: "That no longer appeals to me." His main business is now Dream, an Israeli cybersecurity and AI company he founded in 2023 with Shalev Hulio, co-founder of the Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group, and AI expert Gil Dolev. Kurz is president of the company, which is headquartered in Tel Aviv, with its European headquarters in Vienna.
Dream sells cybersecurity and, increasingly, AI analytics tools to governments and critical infrastructure operators, putting it in competition with Palantir. In the summer, the company raised $260 million at a $3 billion valuation. Kurz says he holds just under 15 percent, worth around $450 million on paper. Dream recently made headlines by uncovering an AI agent campaign targeting Taiwan.
Where Marsalek Is Believed to Be
Marsalek has been on the run since Wirecard’s collapse in June 2020 and is wanted on an international arrest warrant for billion-euro fraud. According to Bellingcat, he flew from Klagenfurt via Tallinn to Minsk and was taken from there to Russia. Leads pointing to the Philippines and China turned out to be fake.
Since then, everything has pointed to Moscow. According to investigations by Der Spiegel, ZDF, Der Standard and The Insider, Marsalek lives there under changing false identities, such as Konstantin Bayazov or Alexander Nelidov, and works for the FSB domestic intelligence service. Last year, photos emerged showing him in a suit and tie on his way to FSB headquarters at Lubyanka. His phone reportedly connected there more than 300 times in 2024, and data analysis also shows trips to occupied areas of eastern Ukraine, such as Mariupol. In Germany, federal prosecutors are now also investigating him for espionage. Extradition by Russia is considered out of the question.
