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Lyt når som helst, hvor som helst 

Pushkin Industries & Financial Times

In 2020, the Financial Times exposed a €2 billion fraud at Wirecard, a high-flying German fintech. Many thought that was the end of the story. But for reporter Sam Jones, it was just the beginning.

This season on Hot Money: Agent of Chaos, Jones investigates Wirecard’s chief operating officer, who vanished just as Wirecard collapsed. And turned out to also be a Russian spy.

From an Ibizan sting operation to an attempted takeover of the Austrian intelligence service, his reporting spirals into a world of warlords, espionage, and disinformation.

All in an attempt to answer one question: Who is the real Jan Marsalek? And what does his secret life reveal about the powerful forces he serves?

Hot Money: The New Narcos

Nearly 40 years ago, in the parking lot of a community college in Port Huron, Michigan, a 20-year-old student named Scott Macklem was shot dead in broad daylight. His murder shocked the community. It made no sense. The police quickly found their suspect. There was only one problem: the man said he was nowhere near the scene of the crime. And he could prove it. In Examined: The Backfire Effect, journalist Josie Duffy Rice talks with eyewitnesses, investigators and local reporters to unravel a shocking story of judicial apathy and expedience — a story that leaves no one off the hook.
 
Examined looks at overlooked cases that never got the real investigation they deserved. Each season features deeply reported stories about crime, punishment, and the criminal legal system. 
 
Find more episodes of Examined: The Backfire Effect wherever you get podcasts. Binge the full series now with a Pushkin+ subscription — sign up on the Examined Apple show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Examined: The Backfire Effect | New Podcast

In this special bonus episode from The Financial Times, "The Broker" tells the story of how a failed baseball hopeful and disgraced stockbroker reinvented himself as one of America’s most consequential modern arms dealers.
 
From a family-run warehouse in Virginia Beach, Will Somerindyke built his company into a crucial conduit in the Pentagon’s covert supply chains — sourcing Soviet-era weapons for wars in Syria and Yemen before emerging as a central player in Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
 
As artillery shells became the most sought-after commodity of the war, he placed a multimillion-dollar bet on reviving crumbling Cold War factories in the Balkans, transforming himself from middleman to manufacturer.
 
Based on months of reporting, The Broker traces Somerindyke’s rise through the shadow world of privatized warfare — where geopolitics, profit and personal ambition collide — and reveals how modern conflicts are sustained not only by soldiers on the front lines, but by entrepreneurs who move the weapons behind the scenes.
 
This piece, written by the FT’s Miles Johnson, host of Hot Money Season 2: The New Narcos, was originally printed in FT Weekend.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From The Financial Times: The Broker

In our season finale, Sam discovers a different narrative about Marsalek’s life in Russia. And a tip from long ago resurfaces. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 8: Matryoshka

A Marsalek-backed ring of operatives goes on trial in the UK for espionage. A treasure trove of text messages reveals their inner workings.
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 7: From Russia With Love

Back in Vienna, Sam investigates another Marsalek plot. One that nearly toppled Austria’s intelligence agency.
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 6: Maestro

How does one become a spy? Sam speaks with a former Russian intelligence officer about how Marsalek might have been recruited. And to what ends.
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 5: A Different Set of Rules

On the ground in Austria and Germany, Sam digs deep into Marsalek’s past. His odd habits. His strange house. The hypnotic effect he had on former colleagues. And how he is remembered by childhood friends.
 
CORRECTION: In this episode, we reported Marsalek left home just before taking his final school exams at age 17. We’ve since learned he was 18 when he left home.
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 4: Backbearings

Sam tracks down an old contact in Tunisia. A former UN official living off grid. He reveals how he ended up involved in one of Jan Marsalek’s wildest schemes.
 
CORRECTION: In this episode, we reported that Marsalek told Killian Kleinschmidt that he arrived in Syria in a Mig 8. That was an error. Killian only recalls Marsalek saying that he arrived in Syria in a helicopter, not specifically a Mig 8. 
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 3: Thrill Seeking

As Sam arrives in Vienna, a political bomb explodes. A secretly recorded video exposes ties between the far right and Russia, plunging the Austrian government into crisis and revealing a world where people like Jan Marsalek can thrive.
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 2: The Friendship Society

A series of clandestine lunch meetings leads Sam’s editor to send him off to Vienna, in search of one man.
 
Get ad-free access to the entire season of Hot Money: Agent of Chaos by subscribing to Pushkin+ on Apple Podcasts or Pushkin.fm. Access ad-free episodes, exclusive binges, full audiobooks, and bonus content for all Pushkin shows with Pushkin+.
 
Subscribe on Apple: apple.co/pushkin
Subscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plus

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode 1: The Bribe

A decade ago, a computer programmer named Fabian Thylmann began to build one of the biggest porn empires in the world.
 
How did Fabian do it? He was good with money in a business that was starved of finance. He convinced Wall Street to bankroll his vision to take control of the industry.
 
If you’d like to keep up with the most recent news from this and other Pushkin podcasts be sure to sign up for our email list at Pushkin.fm.

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Episode 2: The Darth Vader of Porn

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