CENTRAL ANTI-CORRUPTION BUREAU always in the interest of Poland Prosecution charges of 5 million bribes - News -

Fictitious services, invoking influence in the Warsaw City Hall, money laundering

The investigation carried out under the supervision of the Silesian Field Division of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption at the National Prosecutor's Office in Katowice concerns the participation in criminal activities of an organised crime group by economic entities and ministerial-level officials sitting in the government between 2011 and 2015. The group marketed VAT invoices for fictitious services of business entities involved in waste removal and disposal from the City of Warsaw. The invoicing of fictitious services was intended to obtain funds to bribe former officials.

According to the investigators' findings, the total amount of financial gains transferred amounted to about PLN 5 million. The money was used to manipulate the selection of companies providing waste collection, management and processing services. The case also involves money laundering. The obtained financial advantages of the illegal scheme were used.

Detentions of suspects

In January of this year, officers of the CBA Regional Office in Wrocław, in cooperation with officers of the Silesian Customs and Tax Office, carried out operations in the Silesian, Mazovian and Łódź voivodeships. At that time, eight persons were detained.

At the beginning of February this year, CBA officers detained another four persons in Mazovia and Silesia. The President of the Management Board of the Employers of Poland and three entrepreneurs are among the detainees. CBA officers searched more than a dozen locations across the country, including the Municipal Office of the Capital City of Warsaw and the Municipal Cleaning Company of the City of Warsaw. By court decision, three persons have been remanded in custody. Non-custodial preventive measures have been applied against the fourth detainee.

Prosecution charges

The detainees faced charges including participation in criminal activities of an organised crime group, money laundering, giving and receiving financial advantages while invoking influence in a local government institution as well as issuing and using fictitious VAT invoices, a criminal offence of the so-called VAT crime.

The case is developing, and further detentions are possible.

CBA Press Team