Podcast
Hot Money: Agent of Chaos
Hosted by Pushkin Industries & Financial Times · EN
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?
22episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Deep Cover: The Family Man | The Raid
Yesterday00:36:45Summary readyDeep Cover's new season, The Family Man, tells a story about how families can deceive each other and the lengths we’ll go to to protect our loved ones Elise and Marissa grew up in a seemingly normal house in the suburbs of St. Louis, but it was a house built on secrets. There were things their father never told them—like how he really made his money. One night, the police showed up, raided their house, and seized boxes of evidence. Hours later, the sisters turned on the TV and saw something surreal: their father in the middle of a police chase. The local news identified him as “The Boonie Hat Bandit”. The girls were stunned. They struggled to accept the truth: Dad had been living a double life. How long had he been lying to them? What had he done? And who, exactly, was their father? Find Deep Cover: The Family Man wherever you get podcasts. If you want to know how the story ends right now, binge the full season by signing up for a Pushkin+ subscriptions on the Deep Cover show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Introducing Drilled: Carbon Cowboys
4w ago00:27:38Tap to summarizeDrilled is a true-crime climate change podcast exposing how corporate corruption and political operatives built decades of climate denial and delay. Hosted and reported by award-winning investigative climate journalists, led by Amy Westervelt, each season unravels new evidence of deception, disinformation, and the power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach. In September 2025, a group of Brazilian ministers trekked all the way to chilly North Dakota to see a presentation on a new type of clean energy project, one that promised to help them deliver Brazilian President Lula’s dream of turning Brazil into "the Saudi Arabia of sustainable aviation fuels." It was the latest in a string of projects from Midwest Republican kingmaker and corn ethanol magnate Bruce Rastetter, whose investments in Brazil might just transform him into a global carbon czar, even as his Summit pipeline carbon project faces fierce opposition from Iowa to North Dakota. The problem? It all requires loads of land and none of it does a thing about climate change. Here's episode 1 of Drilled: Carbon Cowboys. Find Drilled wherever you get podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcribe →From The Financial Times: The Broker
Feb 1700:36:45Summary readyIn 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.
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Introducing Deep Cover Presents: Snowball
Nov 1000:49:51Summary readyWe’re sharing a preview of another podcast we think you’ll enjoy, Deep Cover Presents: Snowball. Snowball follows journalist Ollie Wards as he unravels the wild story of how his own family was taken in, and taken down, by a charming con woman from California…and tries to find out where she is now. He embarks on a question to find out how she did it, why she did it, and where she is now. Financial ruin, shattered trust, and a mystery that stretches across continents and decades—it’s got all the twists and turns you'd expect from a high-stakes crime thriller…only it's all true. Here’s a preview of Snowball by the Unravel Podcast team. If you can’t wait to find out what happens, binge episodes of Deep Cover Presents: Snowball early and ad-free with a Pushkin+ subscription. Find Pushkin+ on the Deep Cover show page in Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Introducing Heavyweight: The Bank Robber
Oct 3000:38:56Summary readyHere's an episode from Heavyweight, a new addition to the Pushkin slate of shows. Heavyweight, hosted by Jonathan Goldstein, creates space for difficult conversations and resolving long-standing regrets and unanswered questions. In this episode: A young man had just turned 14 when he took his father’s shotgun, skipped school, and robbed a bank for $40,000. Now, 33 years later, he wants to apologize to the people he harmed that day. Find Heavyweight wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Introducing The Chinatown Sting: Lucky Bird
Sep 2300:38:49Summary readyHere’s a preview of a new Pushkin podcast, The Chinatown Sting. In the late 1980s, a group of women connected through the mahjong parlors in Manhattan’s Chinatown were caught in a massive undercover drug bust. But this bust was just the beginning of an even bigger case. Host Lidia Jean Kott and co-reporter Shuyu Wang interview sources who’ve never spoken on record before, including witnesses, defendants, and federal prosecutors, to reconstruct a case that still has repercussions today. In this episode, we meet Tina Wong, a young mother who found herself in the middle of the operation with two choices—go to prison, or risk her life to bring down the man at the helm. Listen to The Chinatown Sting wherever you get podcasts and binge the entire season, ad-free, with a Pushkin+ subscription—sign up on The Chinatown Sting Apple Podcasts show page or at pushkin.fm/plus.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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China’s Race to Dominate: Listen to Global Tech Wars
Aug 2500:25:21Summary readyHere’s a preview of a new audiobook, Global Tech Wars: China’s Race to Dominate. For decades, China’s economic rise has been symbolized by its unstoppable force of low-cost manufacturing. Now, it’s the leading country in cutting-edge industries like artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, surveillance technology, and more. In Global Tech Wars, Financial Times’ veteran journalist James Kynge analyzes China’s rapid technological ascent and what it means for the future. If you like what you hear, find the full audiobook at pushkin.fm/audiobooks, Audible, Spotify, or wherever you get your audiobooks.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Sam Jones on Jan Marsalek's Secret Life | SpyCast Interview
Aug 1100:27:39Summary readyWe're sharing a special episode from SpyCast, the official podcast of the International Spy Museum, featuring Hot Money's Sam Jones. SpyCast host Sasha Ingber sits down with Sam to learn how Jan Marsalek came to be one of the most wanted men in the world. Sam speaks to how the Financial Times first uncovered fraud at the fintech company, Wirecard, where Jan was the COO, who Jan was before his involvement with Russian spy networks, and how Sam found himself in the middle of an investigation into Jan's secret life. For more stories of how spies and secret agents reach our everyday lives, find SpyCast wherever you get your podcasts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode 8: Matryoshka
Jul 2900:39:20Summary readyIn 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.
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Episode 7: From Russia With Love
Jul 2200:36:49Summary readyA 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/pushkinSubscribe on Pushkin: pushkin.fm/plusSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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