Former agriculture minister Wojciech Olejniczak charged with harming Alior Bank

At the time of the alleged actions, Olejniczak was the director of the Agro Business Department at Alior Bank. According to investigators, the damage caused to the bank amounts to 161 million zlotys.

The court did not grant the request for his detention but applied precautionary measures, including the property guarantee of 1 million zlotys. The prosecution has announced an appeal.

Last Wednesday, agents from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) detained six individuals, including Olejniczak, in Warsaw, Radom, and Zgierz. On the same day, they were transported to the Katowice branch of the National Prosecutor's Office. The suspects were interrogated on Wednesday and Thursday.

On Friday morning, the prosecutor's office informed that Olejniczak and the others had been formally charged with a total of 10 offenses. These charges concern actions to the detriment of Alior Bank in relation to the granting of credit support to the Henryk Kania Meat Plant, based on documents that allegedly misrepresented the truth. Olejniczak is not accused of falsifying documents, but has been charged with causing damage to the bank.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Olejniczak was the director of the Agro Business Department at Alior Bank during the time in question. The other suspects include bank employees who participated at various stages in assessing the credit applications.

After the charges were presented, the suspects were questioned and provided detailed explanations.

"After completing the proceedings, the prosecutor filed a motion for temporary detention for three individuals, including Wojciech O., while for the remaining individuals, precautionary measures were applied," said Prosecutor Katarzyna Calów-Jaszewska.

On Friday morning, the court did not accept the request for Olejniczak's detention but agreed with the prosecution’s position that there was a high likelihood that the accused had committed the alleged acts and thus freedom-restricting measures were applied, including the 1 million zloty property guarantee, a ban on leaving the country, and police supervision. The prosecution plans to file an appeal against this ruling.

Olejniczak’s lawyer, Jakub Wende, informed that the court rejected the request for detention. "The District Court did not accept the prosecutor's motion. We are returning home with our client," he wrote on X.

In the afternoon, the court also rejected detention requests for two other individuals. One was placed under police supervision and banned from leaving the country, while the other was released without any precautionary measures, according to Calów-Jaszewska.

The prosecution explained that the detentions were justified by the need to interrogate the suspects simultaneously since they had acted together in committing the alleged offenses. The detentions were also intended to prevent any obstruction of the proceedings and to allow for confrontation among the suspects in case of contradictions in their statements, which did occur, and thus confrontations were carried out.

On Thursday, the Supervisory Board of PZU decided to dismiss Olejniczak from temporarily performing the duties of a member of the company’s management board. The Supervisory Board recalled that on August 28 of this year, it passed a resolution to delegate Olejniczak, a member of PZU's Supervisory Board, to temporarily perform the duties of a management board member. This delegation was set for a period of three months, starting on September 2, 2024.

"PZU SA today received information - available in the public domain - regarding the detention of Wojciech Olejniczak, a member of the Supervisory Board who was temporarily performing the duties of a Management Board member," PZU stated in an official communication.

"Based on the information we have, the detention is not related to PZU's business activities but concerns his professional activities between 2016 and 2019, several years before joining the PZU Supervisory Board," the insurance company

The investigation into the Henryk Kania Meat Processing Plant has been ongoing since July 2019. So far, 30 people have been charged with a total of 113 offenses, including involvement in an organized criminal group, tax and fiscal crimes, money laundering, and falsification of documents.

The Henryk Kania Meat Processing Plant in Pszczyna, which was once a major player in the market, collapsed in 2020. The plant’s founder, Henryk Kania Sr., passed away a few days ago. His son, named after his father, who took over the management of the company, is the main suspect in the ongoing investigation conducted by the Silesian Branch of the National Prosecutor’s Office.

He had been pursued by an international arrest warrant and a European arrest order. In 2020, Argentine authorities detained him in Buenos Aires, where he was placed under house arrest. However, due to the stance of the Argentine side, the extradition procedure has stalled.

The prosecutor’s office accuses Henryk Kania's son of committing multiple crimes related to the operation of the plant, including leading an organized criminal group that carried out numerous frauds to the detriment of various business entities. Investigators report that the total amount of funds defrauded exceeds 800 million zlotys.

In 2021, the Central Investigation Bureau of Police (CBŚP) detained two auditors who had been collaborating with Henryk Kania Meat Processing Plant. One of them was charged with being an accomplice in issuing false invoices totaling 683 million zlotys.