Corruption connections – 16 people detained
Officers of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau have detained 16 people. The detainees include officials and co-owners of a company in the mining and production of natural construction aggregates. The investigation into the obtaining of financial benefits and position bribery is supervised by the Podlasie Terrain Division of the Department for Organised Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok.
Officers of the Regional Office of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in Białystok are conducting the investigation into the granting financial benefits to persons holding public functions and managerial positions in entities conducting economic activities and the obtaining of such benefits by these persons from persons managing an economic entity involved in the extraction and production of natural aggregate products between 2019 and 2021.
16 people detained
On Monday (2024/05/20), CBA officers detained sixteen people, including co-owners of a company operating in the mining and production of natural aggregate products. The detainees also include local government officials from the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
As part of the investigation, CBA officers also detained seven people representing companies operating in the construction and road services sector, who cooperated with an entity for the extraction and production of natural aggregates. The suspects included the CEO of a company operating in the infrastructure construction and energy sector.
Searches Conducted in Four Voivodeships
In four voivodeships, CBA officers from units in Białystok, Łódź, Warsaw and Lublin searched at the same time nearly 30 locations. Activities were conducted at the company’s headquarters, places of residence of detainees and offices in the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
The detainees were brought to the Podlasie Terrain Division of the Department for Organised Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok. The prosecutor brought them with charges under Article 228 of the Penal Code and Article 229 of the Penal Code and others.
Preventive Measures Applied
Given the need to secure the proper course of the proceedings against seven people – including the mayor of Sokółka – the Prosecutor’s Office applied for a preventive measure in the form of temporary arrest for a period of three months.
The District Court in Białystok granted the public prosecutor’s motions for the application of temporary arrest against six suspects, but in the case of two of them, including the mayor of Sokółka, the Court applied ‘conditional arrest’, stipulating that this would be changed, once the decision became valid, into preventive measures in the form of a property surety in the amount of PLN 70,000 and PLN 1 million respectively; moreover, the mayor was also subject to a ban on leaving the country and suspension in the performance of duties. In the case of one of the suspects, the court applied non-custodial preventive measures, i.e. a property surety in the amount of PLN 30,000, suspension in the function of a councillor and a ban on leaving the country.
The Prosecutor applied non-custodial measures against the remaining persons in the form of a property surety in the amount of PLN 20,000 to PLN 2 million, police supervision, a ban on leaving the country combined with the confiscation of their passports.
This is the first CBA implementation in this investigation. The investigation is ongoing.
CBA Press Team
