The so-called Tambovskaya Bratva – a criminal network with alleged ties to politicians close to Russian President Vladimir Putin – is said to have acquired a majority stake in the troubled exchange in July 2018, when it was still known as Bit Bay and facing serious financial difficulties.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has previously referred to "Russian ties" in the Zondacrypto affair.
Gazeta Wyborcza says he based those remarks on a classified note from Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW).
According to the newspaper, the ABW document identifies the Tambov gang as the group that took control of the exchange.
The gang originated in the 1980s as a violent extortion racket before expanding its influence into the fuel sector and government circles in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s.
The group has been linked in media reports to Putin, who served as the city's deputy mayor at the time.
The ABW note is said to describe how the takeover was arranged through a Polish intermediary, with the majority stake formally sold by co-founder Mateusz Bajer.
Ownership passed to three entities registered in the United Arab Emirates by the exchange's other co-founder, Sylwester Suszek, though the newspaper reports that the money behind the deal came from the Russian group.
Two payments, each worth tens of millions of euros, are said to have been made as part of the acquisition.
The alleged intermediary is described as a little-known Polish businessman with prior dealings with the gang in the fuel sector.
In a post on X on Monday, Jacek Dobrzyński, a spokesman for Poland's security services said the ABW had been investigating the use of cryptocurrency to finance sabotage operations on behalf of foreign intelligence services, as well as criminal exploitation of crypto assets.
He said the agency had provided "full information" to the relevant state authorities, contributing to a special parliamentary session addressed by PM Tusk in December 2025.
Dobrzyński added that the ABW was also examining links between politicians and lobbying against cryptocurrency regulation.
(ał/gs)
Source: tvp.info, wyborcza.pl