The US newspaper detailed Jan Marsalek's activities in an article published on Friday.
Between 2010 and 2020, the Austrian was the chief operating officer at the German payment-processing giant Wirecard, Poland's biznesalert.pl website noted.
Marsalek oversaw transactions worth up to USD 140 billion a year, on behalf of thousands of firms, The Wall Street Journal reported.
At the same time, he used his role as Wirecard's COO to illegally finance covert operations of the Russian spy agencies, and assist the Russian private military company Wagner, sources in Western intelligence told The WSJ.
Marsalek also likely gathered data on Wirecard's clients in Germany, including the Federal Criminal Office, and passed it to Russia, according to Western officials.
In 2020, Wirecard collapsed after auditors uncovered a EUR 2 billion hole in its balance sheet.
Marsalek was fired and is accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from the company, Business Insider reported.
The Austrian fled to Minsk, Belarus, just hours after being dismissed from Wirecard, according to investigative outlets including Bellingcat.
Marsalek later went to Russia, where he stayed under the supervision of the military-intelligence service GRU, German media reported.
German authorities have been looking for Marsalek ever since, on suspicion of embezzlement and fraud, Business Insider noted.
Marsalek is also on Interpol's most-wanted list, according to news outlets.
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Source: biznesalert.pl, The Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, RBC-Ukraine, Bellingcat
