Jan Marsalek, the elusive former chief operating officer of defunct German payment processors Wirecard, has been put on Interpol's most wanted list as German prosecutors plead on TV for leads to the disgraced executive's whereabouts.

Seen as a key figure in the the creation of fictitious revenue streams at the insolvent payments company, Marsalek went missing shortly after the arrest of chief executive Markus Braun.

The latest sighting of Marsalek was in Moscow, allegedly under the protection of Russian army intelligence unit the GRU.

Interpol's Red Notices are issued for fugitives wanted either for prosecution or to serve a sentence. A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. The law enforcement body is believed to have made an appeal to Russian authorities for information relating to Marsalek's whereabouts.

In Germany, meanwhile, public prosectors took the unusual step of making a TV appeal for information leading to Marsalek's detention.

The wanted notice, issued in English and German versions and illustrated with two pictures of the 40-year-old Austrian, one from 2017 in which he sports a beard, and one from last year in which he is cleanshaven, is headlined “Fraud in the billions”.

“Jan MARSALEK, ex board member of Wirecard AG, is strongly suspected of having committed billions in commercial gang fraud, the particularly serious case of embezzlement and other property and economic offences,” the notice issued jointly by Munich prosecutors and federal police reads. “He is currently on the run.”