PM Morawiecki's wife cashes in nearly 15 million zlotys for selling land she bought 20 times cheaper from Church

The two plots of land bought by Mateusz and Iwona Morawiecki in 2002, size 14.8 ha and 0,19 ha, located in Wrocław's Oporów disctrict, became widely known in 2019. "Gazeta Wyborcza" wrote that the land, worth 4 million zlotys at the time of purchase, was bought by the Morawieckis from the Church for 700,000 zlotys. After the article was published, Morawiecki ordered an expert estimation of the property's value, which was established at 14.3 million zlotys.

Since December 2013 - when Mateusz Morawiecki was still chairman of the BZ WBK bank - due to division of assets the prime minister's wife has been the sole proprietor of the land. Thereby, the plots are not mentioned in Mateusz Morawiecki's assets declarations, nor is the income from their sale.

In an interview for wPolityce portal, the prime minister explained his decision in the following way: "She (Iwona Morawiecka - edit.) runs a business, leases property, invests. Being bank chairman, and especially later in public office, as a politician, I didn't want to have any links with active investing, with doing business".

According to a notarial act seen by tvn24.pl, on August 20, 2021, Iwona Morawiecka sold the plots for a total of 14.9 million zlotys. The document was issued by a notarial office in Wrocław.

We have confirmed the date of the transaction in the justice ministry electronic land and mortgage register. Iwona Morawiecka is still mentioned there as the owner of both plots, but in section II pertaining to ownership, it is mentioned that the ownership has changed on August 20, 2021. The date matches the one specified in the notary act we have seen.

Name of the new owner is still not mentioned the electronic land register, as it can take up to six months for an entry to appear in the books.

According to the notarial act, the prime minister's wife sold the land to a Wrocław company Paskart Sobuś, owned by Jerzy Paskart and Marcin Sobuś.

According to information available in the National Court Register (KRS), the company mainly trades in property and development. However, it doesn't have a long history, as it was registered at the end of October 2020 - ten months prior to to the transaction.

The value of the plots could have gone up with the adoption of a local development plan, works on which began in 2001.

In 2003, local council decided that running economic activity would be allowed in the area owned by the Morawieckis, and an expressway would run through the middle of one of their plots.

The last area development plan available at Wrocław city hall website is dated August 2020. It still assumes allowing "economic activity" and construction of expressway on the Morawieckis' property.

In 2019, in reaction to "Gazeta Wyborcza's" publication, the prime minister's wife issued a statement in which she would take the paper to court for slander.

Morawiecka also promised that if the local authorites decided to construct the road in accordance with the development plan, she would sell the outlined part of the plot for a price specified in the notarial act, taking inflation into account.

"I also declare I will donate the whole sum I receive from Wrocław Municipality to charity," she added. Therefore, such scenario will not unfold.

If the planned road actually was built, the value of the land would increase - especially if the plot was divided into parts, as it would open up more investment options.

Due to the fact that in 2019 the Government Information Centre (CIR) was answering questions regarding the land on behalf of the PM's wife, we have referred our questions for Iwona Morawiecka to CIR. We have also asked Prime Minister Morawiecki for a comment. By the time of the publication of this article we have not received a reply.

In an article published in May 2019, "Gazeta Wyborcza" revealed that the land, whose ownership rights had been passed in 1999 by the state to St. Elisabeth's parish in Wrocław, a few years later became part of the Morawieckis' assets.

In 2002, they purchased 15 ha of land for 700,000 zlotys, although according to "GW", the price was few times lower than the actual value of the plot, worth 4 million zlotys, as Wrocław authorities had planned investments in this area, including an expressway going through the middle of today's prime minister's property.

"Wyborcza" also quoted from a statement given by Morawiecki at the prosecutor's office in relation to an inquiry into Agricultural Property Agency officials, who had granted the land to the Church. An expert witness, called in the course of this 1999 investigation, assessed the value of the land, bought later by the future PM, at 4 million zlotys.

Morawiecki testified at the time he was told about the possiblity to buy plots in Oporów by Cardinal Henryk Gulbinowicz. "My family has known the cardinal for many years and for that reason I sometimes visit him. In late 1990s there were rumours about an option to buy land from the Church, and hearing these rumours, I asked the cardinal about this option" - Morawiecki said.

According to information "Wyborcza" received from CIR, Iwona Morawiecka learned about the land "from a friend who was a property sales middleman".

According to CIR, the amount paid for the property "was the transaction cost, which means that at the time such were the prices of plots of land in that area".

After the publication of the "GW" article, the prime minister said he and his wife had "absolutely nothing to hide" "I would be very happy to see such changes, such regulations, that all assets, including those of spouses, would have to be declared," he said at a press briefing.

Shortly after, the government announced adoption of rules which would make assets of politicians' families transparent.

The bill on key state officials' family assets, drawn up at the prime minister's office, was approved by the Sejm in September 2019. The legislation assumes that the prime minister, ministers, MPs, MEPs, senators, top judges, and other key state figures will be duty bound to include in their asset declarations information regarding personal assets of their family members, including spouses, children, and people in cohabitation.

The bill, however, wasn't signed into law by the president, who referred it to the Constitutional Tribunal in October 2019, shortly after it was passed by the lower house. President's then spokesman Błażej Spychalski said Andrzej Duda fully supported the general idea of the legislation, but wanted to make sure there were no legal concerns as to its implementation.

In late October 2021, the Constitutional Court led by Julia Przyłębska ruled that the law was unconstitutional. The court argued that revealing assets of public officers' children would violate privacy, while the mechanism of exposing assets could weaken family ties and lead to conflicts between close relatives.

The tribunal also said the provisions in question were inseparable from the whole act, and the president had a duty to refuse to ratify this legislation, which in consequence ended the legislative process in this case.

In May 2021 - three months before the sale of the land - reporters from Wirtualna Polska revealed that the prime minister's wife owned, among other things, "two apartments in Warsaw's Mokotów district, 15 ha of land in Wrocław, a 0.5 ha plot at Bzura river, as well as two apartments and business premises in a tenement house at the market square in Wrocław".

Along with the Wrocław property, at the time still owned by Iwona Morawiecka (which WP dubbed "the most valuable of all assets" - worth 12.8 million zlotys according to a "conservative estimate"), the WP reporters estimated the prime minister and his wife's assets at approx. 40 million zlotys.

"I'd like to ask to stop spreading untrue information and being accurate when providing details of the sale of land in Wrocław's Oporów district that I conducted, as well as to stop violating my personal rights," Iwona Morawiecka said in a statement issued after the release of this article.

Morawiecka said that she had bought the land in 2002 at a market price, fully in line with the law and rules of property trade. She assured the market price had been confirmed by two separate land valuations carried out by two independent real-estate trade experts.

Furthermore, the prime minister's wife said in her statement that in 2012 she had bought a 25-percent share of the land from a co-owner. Only after this move was she able to manage the property on her own, we read. She added that the overall price (amount paid in 2002 and 2012 combined), including costs ( tax on civil law transactions, notary fees, ect.) equalled approx. 2.6 million zlotys.

She also assured that the new owners have been obliged in the sale contract to hand over to the city of Wrocław (on demand and on terms specified by the city hall, including free of charge) parts of the land needed for road and pavements construction. She stressed the buyers have committed to carry out the said provision.