Poland’s Olympic chief Radosław Piesiewicz was arrested on Aug. 27 as part of a widening criminal probe into the collapse of crypto exchange Zondacrypto, authorities confirmed. Prosecutors say Piesiewicz faces two charges tied to alleged paid influence and preferential payments to certain creditors as the exchange neared insolvency. He has not been convicted, and investigators have not yet published the full evidence behind the allegations. What prosecutors say - Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said Piesiewicz was questioned at the Silesian branch of the National Prosecutor’s Office and charged under Articles 230 and 302 of Poland’s penal code: one count related to paid influence and a second alleging that he helped satisfy one group of creditors at the expense of others while insolvency approached. - Media reports (Wirtualna Polska and TVN24) say one allegation is that Piesiewicz withdrew his entire balance from Zondacrypto before the platform stopped processing customer withdrawals, leaving other customers unable to access funds. Investigators are probing whether that withdrawal amounted to preferential treatment. - The second allegation concerns paid influence: prosecutors are examining whether Piesiewicz offered to use his contacts to help Zondacrypto with regulatory problems involving Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. Piesiewicz’s response and disputed gifts - After leaving the prosecutor’s office, Piesiewicz denied the charges, calling himself a victim of the exchange and denying preferential treatment on withdrawals. - A joint investigation by Wirtualna Polska and TVN24 reviewed documents and messages that allegedly link Piesiewicz with former Zondacrypto CEO Przemysław Kral. Among the items examined was an invoice showing Kral bought a Patek Philippe Calatrava for €40,000 in November 2025—nine days before Kral met Piesiewicz in Monaco. Messages showed Piesiewicz thanking Kral and saying he was “shocked,” though they did not explicitly reference a watch. - Piesiewicz says the watch was not a gift: he told reporters he paid for it in cash and that Kral merely arranged the purchase. Prosecutors have said the watch is among the matters they plan to investigate further. - Media reports also allege other benefits provided by Kral during the sponsorship period—match tickets, travel for associates, hotel arrangements—though prosecutors have not confirmed which of these, if any, form part of formal charges. Sponsorship ties between Zondacrypto and Poland’s Olympic Committee - According to media reports, Kral and Piesiewicz met during sponsorship talks in spring 2025. By October 2025, Zondacrypto became the Polish Olympic Committee’s general sponsor under a 2026–2028 agreement. - The deal included renaming the Olympic Center in Warsaw to the Zondacrypto Olympic Center of the Polish Olympic Committee and envisaged crypto rewards for Polish athletes who performed well at the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics. - Prosecutors said they are investigating whether Zondacrypto provided financial benefits to Piesiewicz and are also reviewing financing that may have flowed to foundations, the conservative CPAC conference, broadcaster Telewizja Republika, and other organizations or individuals. Broader Zondacrypto collapse and criminal inquiry - The Piesiewicz case is part of a broader criminal investigation opened April 17 by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice into suspected fraud against Zondacrypto customers and potential money laundering going back to 2022. - Zondacrypto’s website went offline on April 23 after customers reported delayed withdrawals and frozen balances. The exchange’s native ZND token lost nearly all market value, with trackers showing no active trading pairs or volume. - Prosecutors estimate customer losses at no less than 350 million zlotys (about $94 million). By June they had received more than 3,600 complaints and had secured over 100 million zlotys that may later be used to compensate victims. - Authorities say the exchange’s owner claimed since 2022 to have lacked access to a cold wallet believed to hold roughly 4,500 Bitcoin—an assertion that was not verified with public proof of reserves. Kral has denied insolvency claims and argued critics had looked only at hot wallets rather than offline holdings; no full wallet list or audited reserve statement has been published. - In July investigators merged the Zondacrypto probe with an inquiry into the March 2022 disappearance of Sylwester Suszek, the founder of BitBay (which later became Zondacrypto), citing overlapping people and activities. International and regulatory implications - No U.S. agency has announced charges or identified confirmed U.S. customer losses in the Zondacrypto matter; any direct exposure for American users remains unconfirmed. - U.S. guidance from FinCEN reminds that foreign crypto platforms serving U.S. customers may still need to register as money services businesses and comply with anti-money‑laundering, recordkeeping, and reporting rules. - The case has fed into Poland’s domestic debate over crypto regulation and implementation of the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) framework. President Karol Nawrocki vetoed a national crypto bill for the third time in June, arguing the proposed powers and rules needed further changes. The measure would have granted Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) licensing and enforcement authority for crypto service providers and introduced criminal penalties for serious violations. - As of June 29, Poland was one of five EU countries with no MiCA licenses recorded on ESMA’s register; by contrast Germany had 57 and France 26 authorized crypto firms listed. Where the case stands - Investigators say they are securing physical and digital records, interviewing witnesses and suspects, and taking steps they say are necessary before publicly releasing detailed evidence. The Piesiewicz arrest represents one prominent thread in a complex investigation that combines alleged customer fraud, suspected preferential payments, potential regulatory interference, and links between crypto business leaders and public figures. - Authorities have stressed that legal procedures are ongoing and that charges are allegations until proven in court. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news