The daily said foreigners paid EUR 9,500 for an “all-inclusive” package intended to obtain a Polish visa and legalize their stay through purported study or employment.
The operation was allegedly organized by Michaił P., a former director of the Uzbekistan branch of Collegium Humanum, a private tertiary institution already at the center of a major investigation into the sale of academic qualifications.
According to investigators, the group operated from 2017 until the end of September this year and made at least PLN 22.5 million from helping foreigners obtain legal status in Poland.
Among those who entered the country was a former officer of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the country’s main domestic security agency.
He was allegedly admitted on the basis of false employment documents and was wanted in Russia over suspected embezzlement. Polish security services do not know where he is now, Rzeczpospolita reported.
The newspaper said many of the foreigners were formally employed by inactive companies that existed largely on paper. The companies continued to pay contributions to Poland’s Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and National Health Fund (NFZ), helping to create the appearance of genuine employment.
“Who benefits from financing this for years?” a security service source asked the newspaper.
Foreigners linked to the scheme came mainly from Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, India and China. Some were formally registered as students or graduates of Polish universities, while others received work permits from companies that had no genuine need for employees.
A Polish university diploma could also make it easier to obtain residence rights or later apply for citizenship.
The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) has said the operation may have been used to facilitate the stay of at least 200 foreigners.
Rzeczpospolita reported that the real number could be considerably higher. Investigators have also found evidence that some people recorded as students of Polish institutions had never crossed the Polish border.
The case continued even after Collegium Humanum rector Paweł Cz. was arrested in February 2024, according to the newspaper.
Two weeks later, Michaił P. became chancellor of another private institution, Pedagogium, where he allegedly continued a similar operation.
Investigators believe the group may also have falsified at least 1,500 university diplomas.
The General Inspector of Financial Information, Poland’s financial intelligence authority, is examining several hundred Warsaw apartments allegedly bought by people or companies connected with the group, Rzeczpospolita reported.
Investigators suspect companies linked to the operation moved criminal proceeds through fictitious loans, making the origins of the money harder to trace and the assets harder to seize.
The newspaper also reported that Michaił P., who was born in Leningrad and holds Russian, Polish and Israeli citizenship, used trusted intermediaries in Russia to recruit clients and collect cash.
He allegedly transported money to Poland personally, often in amounts below the EUR 10,000 threshold requiring a customs declaration.
On September 29, officers from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) and Poland’s Border Guard detained 11 people in several regions of the country.
The investigation is supervised by the Katowice Branch of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Michaił P. and Radosław Z., another man linked to the operation, have been charged with establishing and running an organized criminal group.
Other suspects face charges including participation in the group, falsifying documents, illegally facilitating foreigners’ stays in Poland and money laundering.
Six suspects have been placed in pre-trial detention. Investigators say further arrests are expected.
The case forms part of the wider Collegium Humanum investigation.
Prosecutors filed the first major indictment in that scandal in November last year, charging 29 people with offenses including corruption, fraud, falsifying academic records and money laundering.
The wider inquiry has since expanded. The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau said on October 1 that prosecutors had brought 881 charges against 97 people.
Founded in Warsaw in 2018, Collegium Humanum attracted attention for offering fast-track MBA and postgraduate degrees, often in cooperation with unaccredited foreign institutions.
The school rebranded as the "Varsovia School of Business and Applied Sciences" in mid-2024.
Collegium Humanum in 2024 rebranded as the "Varsovia School of Business and Applied Sciences." Photo: Panek, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
(rt/gs)
Source: polskieradio24.pl, Rzeczpospolita