Radosław Piesiewicz, president of the Polish Olympic Committee, has been arrested and charged with two offenses as prosecutors investigate payments and financial ties connected to the collapsed crypto exchange Zondacrypto.
Summary
- Prosecutors charged Piesiewicz with paid influence and favoring certain creditors over others.
- Investigators are examining an alleged €40,000 watch and Piesiewicz’s withdrawal of exchange funds.
- Zondacrypto customers face estimated losses of at least 350 million zlotys, or $94 million.
- Authorities have secured more than 100 million zlotys that could fund compensation claims.
Poland’s Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek confirmed the arrest on Aug. 27, saying Piesiewicz had been taken into custody as part of the Zondacrypto investigation.
Following questioning at the Silesian branch of the National Prosecutor’s Office, Żurek said prosecutors charged Piesiewicz under Articles 230 and 302 of Poland’s criminal code. The allegations concern paid influence and satisfying one group of creditors at the expense of others while insolvency was approaching.
Piesiewicz has not been convicted, and prosecutors have yet to publish a full account of the evidence supporting the charges.
Zondacrypto probe examines withdrawals and alleged influence
According to a report on the charges by Wirtualna Polska, citing TVN24, one allegation concerns money Piesiewicz held on Zondacrypto before the platform stopped processing customer withdrawals.
Investigators suspect that Piesiewicz received information allowing him to remove his entire investment from the exchange while other creditors could not access their funds, the report said. Prosecutors are examining whether the payment gave him preferential treatment as Zondacrypto faced possible insolvency.
The second charge concerns alleged paid influence. Prosecutors suspect that Piesiewicz offered to use his contacts to assist Zondacrypto with problems involving Poland’s Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, according to the report.
Piesiewicz rejected the accusations after leaving the prosecutor’s office, describing himself as a victim of the exchange. He also denied receiving preferential treatment when withdrawing his money, according to Polish media reports.
A separate joint investigation by Wirtualna Polska and TVN24 examined his relationship with former Zondacrypto chief Przemysław Kral. Documents and messages reviewed by the outlets allegedly showed that Kral bought a Patek Philippe Calatrava watch for €40,000 in November 2025, nine days before meeting Piesiewicz at a hotel in Monaco.
The invoice carried Kral’s name and private address, according to the investigation. Piesiewicz later sent messages thanking Kral and saying he was shocked, although the messages did not refer directly to the watch.
Piesiewicz has maintained that the watch was not a gift. He said he paid for it in cash and that Kral only arranged the purchase. Żurek previously said the watch was one of the matters prosecutors planned to examine.
Olympic sponsorship placed Zondacrypto close to Piesiewicz
Piesiewicz and Kral met during sponsorship talks in spring 2025, according to Wirtualna Polska and TVN24. By October, Zondacrypto had become the Polish Olympic Committee’s general sponsor under an agreement running from 2026 through 2028.
The sponsorship also resulted in the Olympic Center in Warsaw being renamed the Zondacrypto Olympic Center of the Polish Olympic Committee. Under another part of the arrangement, Polish athletes who performed well at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics were expected to receive crypto rewards.
During the sponsorship period, the joint media investigation alleged that Kral provided Piesiewicz with other benefits, including match tickets, travel for people close to him, and hotel arrangements. Prosecutors have not publicly confirmed each of the reported benefits or said which items form part of the formal charges.
In an Aug. 25 statement, the National Prosecutor’s Office said investigators were verifying whether Zondacrypto had provided a financial benefit to Piesiewicz. The same inquiry is examining financing involving foundations, the conservative political conference CPAC, the broadcaster Telewizja Republika, and other individuals or organizations.
Prosecutors said they could not disclose the evidence collected for each part of the case because releasing it could affect witness interviews, searches, and other legal procedures. Officials have been securing physical and digital records while questioning witnesses and people treated as suspects.
Customer losses exceed 350 million zlotys
The case involving Piesiewicz forms one part of a criminal investigation opened by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice on April 17. Authorities are examining suspected fraud against Zondacrypto customers and possible money laundering connected to activity dating from 2022.
Prosecutors said customers may have been misled about their ability to buy and store fiat currencies and crypto through the exchange. The inquiry also covers the receipt, storage, and transfer of funds that may have made it harder to identify assets allegedly connected to fraud.
Estimated customer losses stand at no less than 350 million zlotys, equal to about $94 million. Authorities had received more than 3,600 complaints by June and secured over 100 million zlotys that may later be used to compensate affected customers.
As crypto.news reported in August, Zondacrypto’s website went offline on April 23 after customers reported delayed withdrawals and frozen balances. The exchange-linked ZND token subsequently lost almost all its market value, while available trackers showed no active trading pairs or reported volume.
According to Polish prosecutors, the exchange’s owner said Zondacrypto had lacked access since 2022 to a cold wallet believed to hold about 4,500 Bitcoin. Authorities said customers had not been told about the loss of access.
Kral previously denied that the exchange was insolvent and argued that researchers had examined only its visible hot wallets rather than its offline holdings. No complete wallet list, matching customer liabilities or independently audited proof of reserves was published to verify the claim.
In July, authorities merged the Zondacrypto inquiry with an investigation into the March 2022 disappearance of Sylwester Suszek, who founded BitBay before it was renamed Zondacrypto. Prosecutors said the two cases shared links involving the people and activities under review.
US rules remain separate from Poland’s MiCA dispute
No U.S. agency has announced charges or identified American customer losses in the Zondacrypto case. Any direct exposure for U.S. users, therefore, remains unconfirmed.
For an exchange serving customers in the United States, European registration or authorization does not replace applicable U.S. requirements. FinCEN guidance states that businesses accepting and transmitting convertible virtual currency may need to register as money services businesses and follow anti-money laundering, recordkeeping, and reporting rules, including when the operator is based outside the country.
Zondacrypto’s collapse has also become part of Poland’s dispute over implementing the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the crypto bill for a third time in June, arguing that the proposed powers and requirements needed further changes.
The rejected measure would have given Poland’s Financial Supervision Authority licensing, reporting and enforcement powers over crypto service providers. It also included criminal penalties for serious violations involving exchange operations and token issuance.
Poland was among five EU countries with no MiCA licenses recorded as of June 29, while Germany had issued 57 and France 26, according to ESMA register data. ESMA’s central register tracks authorized crypto service providers, crypto-asset white papers and entities identified as noncompliant across the European Union.
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