Speaker 1: Jan Marcelek was a model of modern German corporate success.
Speaker 1: It seemed so damned simple for him, young, wealthy, charismatic.
Speaker 1: Did it occur to you that he'd charmed you in
Speaker 1: any way? Yes? It did that he was a charming man.
Speaker 1: It turned out he was also a fraudster. Where does
Speaker 1: the money come from? That was something that I always
Speaker 1: was questioning myself. Someone living another life. His secret office
Speaker 1: was a lesson for I verund meters down the road.
Speaker 1: I'm Sam Jones and I'm the European security correspondent for
Speaker 1: the Financial Times. In twenty twenty, my colleagues at the
Speaker 1: FT exposed German financial payments giant WAKAD as a huge
Speaker 1: corporate con But it was also the start of a
Speaker 1: strange and more elusive tale. One cannot work with Macelech.
Speaker 1: He has too close to the rast.
Speaker 2: It looks like the ingredients of a really grand spy story.
Speaker 2: Because this ties together the cold or alms the new one.
Speaker 1: For the last year, I've been pulling together threads from
Speaker 1: the wreckage Jan Marcelect left behind. He disappeared just hours
Speaker 1: before Wakad's final moments and took plundered millions with him.
Speaker 1: I've met people who were drawn into his world. I
Speaker 1: envied Ian so much, only for their lives to be
Speaker 1: turned upside down.
Speaker 2: You do start to.
Speaker 1: Worry what you've sort of brought down on your family.
Speaker 2: I don't know if they've followed me to my home.
Speaker 2: Certain things in my life since then have done terribly wrong.
Speaker 1: Then I think this can't be a coincidence. I've traced
Speaker 1: Marcelet's path from glamorous parties along the Courtezieu with his
Speaker 1: mysterious Russian lover, to the front lines of the War
Speaker 1: on Terror, snapping selfies with Russian mercenaries in Syria and
Speaker 1: Libya of conspiracies aimed at furthering the power of the
Speaker 1: far right. He definitely has a view that he's operating
Speaker 1: with complete freedom to do whatever he likes. I've tried
Speaker 1: to understand why mars electrose this path. I think the
Speaker 1: biggest tragedy of Jan Marsalek is.
Speaker 2: That he didn't need to be what he turned out
Speaker 2: to be.
Speaker 1: What it's all for, I.
Speaker 2: Would say that we are actually at the doorstep of
Speaker 2: a new ideological war, and people are choosing their sides in.
Speaker 1: This struggle, and who he really is.
Speaker 2: I often ask myself, now, did I know the true
Speaker 2: Yan at all?
Speaker 1: This is a story about the underside of the law
Speaker 1: abiding world that most of us imagine. We live in,
Speaker 1: a space carved out by crime and corruption, a world
Speaker 1: some people find irresistible. It all began with an attempt
Speaker 1: to catch a white collar fraudster, but it ended up
Speaker 1: exposing something more sinister espionage from the Financial Times and
Speaker 1: Pushkin Industries Hot Money Season three, Agent of Chaos, coming
Speaker 1: June tenth. Listen to Hot Money Agent of Chaos wherever
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Subscribe to Pushkin Plus to listen
Speaker 1: to Hot Money Agent of Chaos add free. As a
Speaker 1: Pushkin Plus subscriber, you'll also get bonus episodes, full audiobooks,
Speaker 1: and binges from your favorite Pushkin hosts and authors. Find
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