Russian spymaster ‘planned to take over secret service of British ally’

Jan Marsalek’s alleged plot to control Austria’s intelligence agency could have given Putin direct access to sensitive Western information

Russian spymaster Jan Marsalek was involved in a plot to take control of the Austrian intelligence services, The Telegraph can reveal.

Marsalek planned to discredit the country’s intelligence agency, it is alleged, and replace it with a new service with a head who he said would be “loyal”.

Taking over an EU secret service could have given Vladimir Putin direct access to the intelligence shared by Britain and its allies.

However, a planned restructuring, which involved the country’s far-Right Freedom Party (FPO), failed after it was forced out of coalition by a corruption scandal known in Austria as “Ibiza-gate”, which saw its leader accused of offering government contracts in return for support from Russia.

The plot is the latest revelation to emerge from The Telegraph’s investigation into Marsalek, who was working for Russia while running Wirecard, one of the world’s biggest tech companies, when it collapsed in 2020 with a €1.9 billion hole in its books.

Last week, a team of Bulgarian agents Marsalek had been running in the UK, was found guilty of conspiracy to spy at the Old Bailey. They had been running surveillance operations, disinformation campaigns and plotting to kidnap enemies of Putin.

Marsalek is currently on the run, having fled Europe in 2020. He is on Interpol’s most wanted list for his alleged part in the fraud and is believed to be in Moscow.

Before he fled, Marsalek was also “co-operating” with rival secret services around the world, including the Americans and MI6, security sources have told The Telegraph.

However, his work was not limited to spying. The Telegraph has revealed that he also plotted to use private armies to control migration into Europe and was in talks with officials over payment cards that would have allowed him to track refugees.

Julian Hessenthaler, a security consultant whose work helped expose Marsalek’s involvement, said that the Austria plot would have been a “ballsy” plan.

Austria is seen as an intelligence partner by Britain and is a member of the Club de Berne, a secretive network of European spy agencies through which they share information.

“Usually you try to place a mole inside the service of a foreign country, and that’s already considered high tradecraft,” Mr Hessenthaler said.

“Now if you’re able to rebuild a complete service with your own people in a foreign country, that’s next level. I don’t think that’s ever been done before.”

Security sources believe that the plot against the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism Secret Service (BVT) began with a raid in 2018.

At the time, the FPO was the minority party in a coalition government and the then-interior minister, Herbert Kickl, ordered a raid on the country’s intelligence agency amid corruption claims at the BVT.

The raid by armed police discredited the agency in the eyes of its intelligence partners as officers seized confidential data and took the files that had been left lying on the desks overnight.