CBA swoops in bribery scandal

25th November 2011

The head of the country’s former intelligence agency has been arrested in a spectacular anti-corruption bust and charged with accepting millions of zloty in bribes.

Members of the specialist anti-graft unit the CBA arrested General Gromoslaw C. on November 23 in one of the most high-profile raids by the CBA since it was formed during the days of the Jaroslaw Kaczynski government.

General C., whose full name is withheld owing to reporting restrictions, led the now defunct State Protection Bureau (UOP) from 1993 to 1996.

Four others were arrested along with the general, including a former advisor to the treasury ministry and an ex-advisor to economic guru Leszek Balcerowicz.

Although the CBA kept their lips sealed as to the details of the arrest information leaked out from other sources.

According to news channel TVN24, the general was charged with receiving as much as PLN 2 mln in bribes, and money laundering in connection with the privatisation of the Stoen energy group, and goings on at LOT Polish Airlines between 1998 and 2004.

After stepping down from the military General C. developed extensive business connections and served on the supervisory boards of, among others, LOT and BRE Bank.

Leszek Golawski, spokesman for the Katowice prosecutor’s office, said the ill-gotten money received in bribes had been broken up and placed in bank accounts around the world, and, in order to crack the case, investigators had called on international help.

“The case was largely based on the legal assistance that has been received: several times from Switzerland but also Liechtenstein, Cyprus and other countries,” Mr Golawski told newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza. “Prosecutors personally travelled to Switzerland, where they made requests for legal assistance. They collected a gigantic pile of documentation, full of account balances, accounts, companies and all the transfers that were made.”

In the wake of the arrest, Leszek Miller, prime minister when much of the alleged bribery to place, leapt to the defence of the old soldier saying he could “not imagine that he took bribes and laundered money”.

All the five men arrested were released on bail but had to hand in their passports and swear not to leave the country.