The indictment, sent to the Warsaw-Śródmieście District Court, names four defendants: Edgar K., former deputy foreign minister Piotr Wawrzyk, and two former senior officials from the ministry’s Consular Department, Marcin J. and Beata B.
Prosecutors accuse Edgar K. of nine counts of influence peddling, a crime that involves claiming to have sway over officials and offering to “fix” administrative decisions, in return for money.
Investigators say he repeatedly invoked supposed influence inside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and at Polish diplomatic and consular posts abroad, then offered to help secure visas or speed up visa procedures for foreigners in exchange for financial benefits or promises of payment.
Prosecutors said the new indictment is the second in the case. A first indictment, filed in August 2025, covered six people.
Investigators said the probe continues, including threads related to legislative work on changes to Poland’s law on foreigners and to the creation of new visa-related centers in Łódź and Kielce.
According to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, Edgar K. handled visa-related “intermediation” for more than 600 foreigners, mainly citizens of India, Nepal, Thailand, and the Philippines, and took payments totaling several hundred thousand zlotys, including in foreign currencies.
Prosecutors said he has admitted wrongdoing and provided extensive explanations, which they say are directly connected to allegations involving the other defendants.
Wawrzyk is accused of a single offense that prosecutors describe as exceeding his authority and disclosing official information between February 2022 and May 2023.
Investigators say the former deputy minister made unjustified interventions aimed at accelerating visa procedures for foreigners whose details he allegedly received from Edgar K., and that he influenced, in specific cases, the content of visa decisions issued at Polish consulates.
Prosecutors also allege that Wawrzyk accepted and passed around lists of foreign applicants outside official channels, instructed staff to take some applications out of order, and shared data and documents from visa-processing systems with Edgar K.
The prosecution service says Wawrzyk did not receive financial benefits himself, but acted to help Edgar K. profit.
Marcin J. and Beata B. are accused of exceeding their authority by allegedly pressuring consuls in a manner prosecutors describe as unlawful, and by making unjustified interventions to speed up visa processing.
Prosecutors say they acted on Wawrzyk’s orders, including instructing staff to accept applications out of turn and participating in actions that led to changes in some visa decisions.
The defendants, apart from Edgar K., deny the allegations.
The justice minister and prosecutor-general, Waldemar Żurek, said the investigation is multi-threaded and that the main thread concerns intermediaries helping to obtain visas for hundreds of foreigners in exchange for money.
He added that 11 people have so far faced charges and that “this is not the end.”
Prosecutors said the suspects are not in custody and are subject to non-custodial preventive measures, mainly financial guarantees.
The alleged offenses carry maximum sentences of up to eight years in prison for Edgar K. and up to 10 years for the other defendants, prosecutors said.
The so-called visa scandal erupted in the summer of 2023 under Poland’s previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, which had campaigned on a tough stance on migration.
Wawrzyk, who oversaw consular affairs including the visa system, was dismissed in August 2023, with officials initially citing "unsatisfactory cooperation."
Days later, then prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the dismissal was linked to actions by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, a state agency that investigates corruption.
A parliamentary inquiry in the Sejm, Poland’s lower house, later described weak oversight inside the foreign ministry that it said created room for corruption and undermined the visa system.
The commission also scrutinized the Poland Business Harbour program, which it said issued tens of thousands of visas during the previous administration, raising broader questions about control and security.
(rt)
Source: IAR, PAP