Paweł S. began working with Marek Falenta in 2015, shortly after the scandal became public.
Falenta, one of Poland's wealthiest businessmen at the time, was later convicted of orchestrating the illegal recording of politicians at a Warsaw restaurant and sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
Paweł S. went on to become chief executive of Hawe, Falenta's flagship company.
He also took part in an attempt to acquire its shares with backing from Sergei Skatershikov – a representative of oligarch Vladimir Yevtushenkov, who has reported ties to the Solntsevskaya crime organisation and the FSB.
A second unnamed Russian also helped move Falenta's assets out of Poland, with the transactions allegedly linked to the FSB.
In 2018, BitBay – Zondacrypto's predecessor – relocated to Malta.
While the company's chief executive publicly cited regulatory reasons, an ABW internal note revealed by daily Gazeta Wyborcza indicated that Russian investors linked to the Tambovskaya crime group had invested in the firm at that time.
The sole shareholder of the Malta-registered entity operating the exchange was Paweł S.
He later moved the operation to Estonia, where the exchange was rebranded as Zondacrypto.
Paweł S. currently faces at least two criminal cases relating to his time at Hawe – one for money laundering, another for acting against creditors' interests by transferring funds to an external account.
He remains active in Polish business.
OKO.press sent him questions about his contacts with Russian nationals; he had not responded at the time of publication.
Polish prosecutors opened a formal investigation into Zondacrypto in April 2026 after users reported difficulties withdrawing funds.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused the company of ties to Russia and of financing political events in Poland.
(ał)
Source: OKO.press, tvp.info