Fraud allegations for ruling party leader

Dubois said that the case may involve the defraudation of up to several million zlotys. 

Kaczyński has been accused by Austrian businessman Gerald Birgfellner of failing to pay him for work related to a building project in Warsaw, according to a report published by the Gazeta Wyborcza daily on Tuesday.

At issue is an investment project by the PiS-affiliated company Srebrna, involving the construction of two high-rise buildings in downtown Warsaw. One of them would house the Lech Kaczynski foundation, named after Jarosław's late twin brother and former president of Poland, who was killed in a 2010 plane crash. The construction was to be financed by a PLN 1.3 bln (EUR 300 mln) loan from the Polish bank Pekao SA, according to the newspaper. The Austrian businessman was engaged in the project.

As Gazeta Wyborcza unofficially found out, last Friday Birgfellner's lawyers, Dubois and Roman Giertych, notified the Warsaw prosecutor's office of "reasonable suspicion of Jarosław Kaczyński having committed a crime." The Austrian businessman has accused the ruling party leader of "committing a large-scale fraud."

On Tuesday, the daily published a transcript of a recorded conversation between Kaczyński and Birgfellner held at the PiS headquarters on July 27, 2018, in which Kaczyński cancelled the construction project due to failing permission from the city authorities. 

"If we don't win the elections, we won't be able to build this tower in Warsaw," was a statement that Kaczyński allegedly repeated a number of times during the conversation, according to Gazeta Wyborcza. The conversation was held before the October 2018 local elections.

The newspaper reported that Birgfellner's total remuneration after the construction of the "two towers" was to amount to 3 percent of the investment's value, or approximately PLN 39 million (about EUR 9 million). After the cancellation of the investment by Kaczyński, the management of Srebrna refused to pay Birgfellner for his work, although, reportedly, the Austrian has already completed some preparatory works: architectural design, implementation strategy, property valuation, negotiations with contractors of individual stages, hiring employees and architects.

Dubois explained that when the Austrian demanded payment for his work, he was instructed to invoice a certain company, which, however, declared itself unable to pay. When he subsequently tried to invoice the company which had actually employed him, he was told payment was impossible as all documentation in the matter had been issued in the name of the other company.

According to Dubois, this meant that the Austrian had fallen subject to fraud, as he had been intentionally asked to produce documentation which made it impossible for him to execute the money he was owed.

Commenting on the matter on Tuesday, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Gazeta Wyborcza's report carried no indications of illicit activity by Kaczyński, and the taped conversation proved his "honesty, credibility and reliability." According to Morawiecki, the daily's disclosures were a manipulation and part of its long-term war against Kaczyński, who was in fact "a symbol of honesty and credibility."

Main opposition party Civic Platform (PO) on Tuesday demanded that Kaczyński reveal his assets and announced its own charges against the PiS leader. PO's Cezary Tomczyk said that the taped exchange between Kaczyński and Birgfellner showed Kaczyński's "mafia-like" negotiation methods. Another PO MP, Krzysztof Brejza, questioned Kaczyński's connections to the Srebrna company, in which he held no official function.

In an interview for PAP, PiS spokesperson Beata Mazurek called Gazeta Wyborcza's report "a dud" which brought "not even a shred of evidence" of any illegality by Kaczyński and showed him as an "absolutely honest person."

Deputy PM Jarosław Gowin told reporters in the Sejm (lower house) that Gazeta Wyborcza had "shown nothing to undermine (...) Jarosław Kaczyński's honesty." (PAP)

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