Sławomir Nowak, who served as transport minister from 2011 to 2013 in Poland’s former coalition government led by his Civic Platform (PO) party, was detained in July last year by Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) in a joint probe with Ukrainian investigators on suspicion of multiple white-collar crimes while he worked in Ukraine.
Officers with Poland's Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) Image: cba.gov.pl.
A day later he was charged with “managing an organised criminal group that benefited from corruption,” according to a spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has now submitted to Poland written charges against Nowak, who formerly headed Ukraine’s State Road Agency (Ukravtodor) and has been in custody in Poland since July, Polish state news agency PAP reported on Tuesday.
According to the indictment, Nowak is suspected of deliberately failing to comply with a Ukrainian court order, an offense roughly equivalent to obstruction of justice, the PAP news agency reported.
It added that Nowak, who was once a right-hand man to Polish centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, was not identified by name in the statement from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.
According to the case files, Nowak is suspected of deliberately failing to carry out, and hindering the execution of, a Ukrainian court order to reinstate a senior management employee in a regional Ukravtodor branch, the PAP news agency also reported.
The charges carry a prison term of three to eight years, according to PAP.
The indictment from the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office comes after investigators probing the former Polish government minister in September last year detained three more suspects in connection with the wide-ranging inquiry, according to a report at the time.
Stanisław Żaryn, a spokesman for Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), said at the time that investigators believed Nowak may have received several hundred thousand zlotys in exchange for helping the detained individuals land lucrative jobs in state-owned companies.
The three detainees, meanwhile, are suspected of handing bribes to Nowak in return for his help and favors leading to their appointment, Żaryn said in late September, as quoted by public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
Żaryn added that the bribes were believed to have been offered at a time when Nowak worked in Poland in his capacity as chief of staff to then-Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Cash, assets seized
Earlier that month, investigators said they had seized over PLN 4 million (EUR 900,000, USD 1.1 million) worth of cash coming "from corruption offenses committed" by Nowak, in addition to assets such as two apartments and a high-end luxury car, according to a report by the polsatnews.pl website.
The cash was stashed away in specially crafted hiding places, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau said at the time, as quoted by state news agency PAP.
Those findings showed that "Sławomir Nowak carried out his activities on a much larger scale than was previously thought," the investigators also said, according to polsatnews.pl.
Corruption charges fly
The wpolityce.pl website in late July cited two journalists with Poland’s Sieci news magazine as claiming that Nowak, who headed Ukraine’s State Road Agency (Ukravtodor) from 2016 to 2019, “not only accepted bribes for road contracts, but also demanded money from businessmen seeking favour with Ukrainian authorities.”
Once "the golden boy" of Poland's previous ruling elite, Nowak has “turned out to be an international con man,” the journalists, Marek Pyza and Marcin Wikło, said, according to the wpolityce.pl website.
Mirosława Chyr, spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, told reporters on July 21 that Nowak was suspected of receiving more than PLN 1.3 million (EUR 293,000, USD 335,000) in personal gain in return for illegitimately awarding contracts to private businesses for the construction and repair of roads in Ukraine.
He is also suspected of “laundering money from corruption crimes,” Chyr said at the time.
She added that the charges “concern the period from October 2016 to September 2019 when the former Polish government minister headed the Ukrainian State Road Agency Ukravtodor.”
Two other suspects were also charged in the case at the time, according to Chyr.
Both were accused of being part of an organised criminal group as well as of money laundering and taking bribes, she told reporters.
Under Polish privacy laws, the two men were at the time identified only as “Dariusz Z.,” a former commander of Poland’s elite GROM special forces unit, and “Jacek P.,” a businessman based in the Baltic city of Gdańsk.
All three suspects denied the charges against them, Chyr told the media.
Nowak, who has been remanded in custody following a court order, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, according to wpolityce.pl.
(gs/pk)
Source: PAP, bankier.pl, polsatnews.pl, wpolityce.pl