Entrepreneur dealing with the relocation of foreigners to Krakow among 3 persons detained by the CBA agents from Kraków - corruption in tenders for attractive real estate in the capital of Małopolska
The CBA Regional Office in Krakow, under the supervision of the District Prosecutor's Office in Krakow, is conducting an investigation into invoking influences in, among others, local government administration and the Board of Municipal Buildings (ZBK) in Krakow and unlawful mediation in arranging the lease or purchase of apartments and commercial premises located in attractive parts of Krakow, near the market square or the Wawel Hill.
The agents of the Krakow CBA Regional Office detained three more persons involved in the corrupt practices related to tenders for rental and sale of real estate in Krakow.
The detained three persons cooperated in orientating tenders for the rental of residential premises, promising financial benefits in exchange for mediation in beneficial settlement of the matters of the ZBK. Among them is a Krakow entrepreneur dealing with the relocation of foreigners employed in international corporations to the capital of małopolska region. For a bribe he wanted to arrange flats in Krakow's Kazimierz and near one of the largest city parks in Krakow which encircles the Old Town. The other two persons cooperated with him.
The first detentions took place in February this year. So far, 9 persons have been detained, including middlemen, entrepreneurs giving high financial benefits and high-ranking officials from the Krakow magistrate: director with the head of the department dealing with the city's housing stock, head of the division of the office's treasury, head of one of the divisions in the Municipal Building Board in Krakow. The findings of the CBA investigators and the prosecutor's office indicate, that the clerks were the one of the link in the chain - they took bribes and helped in obtaining the right to business premises and flats.
The events that are currently under investigation, took place in the years 2015-2017, and the case concerns at least a dozen real estates: apartments, commercial premises and tenements from the resources of the Municipality of Krakow. The CBA agents secured documents in the Krakow town hall. Further detentions in this case are not ruled out. The investigation is developmental and multithreaded.
The Central Anticorruption Bureau calls for persons, who handed financial or personal benefits to UM officials in Krakow (employees of Krakow Municipality) or other persons in exchange for granting of residential or utilitarian premises from resources of the Krakow Municipal Authority, to the CBA Regional Office in Krakow and to use the "unpunishability" clause from art. 229 § 6 of the Penal Code: "The perpetrator of the offense is not punished /../ if the financial or personal benefit or their promise was accepted by a person holding a public function, and the perpetrator notified the authority established to prosecute crimes and disclosed all the relevant circumstances of the offense, before this authority found out about it."
It is worth noting, that the CBA's appeal has already had a positive effect - there are first three reports of persons using the unpunishabilty clause.