Polish prosecutor indicts former head of financial regulator

WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s state prosecutor has indicted the former head of the country’s financial regulator on corruption charges, in one of the most prominent cases of alleged corruption in the European Union member state in recent years.

A spokeswoman for the prosecutor said on Thursday the indictment of Marek Chrzanowski was sent to a court on Dec. 31.

Chrzanowski, who was appointed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party to run the regulator, was charged in 2018 with corruption, leading to a drop in shares of Polish banks and to criticism of PiS.

PiS has long campaigned on a promise to root out corruption in what it describes as self-interested liberal elites.

The indictment was first reported by Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. There is no requirement in Poland to inform the public when indictments are filed.

Leszek Czarnecki, the owner of mid-sized Polish lender Getin Noble Bank (WA:) and Getin Holding (WA:), had accused Chrzanowski of demanding payments of millions of dollars to a lawyer for “support”, prompting an official investigation.

Chrzanowski has denied the allegations.

A spokesman for the financial regulator and a spokesman for Getin Holding (WA:) declined to comment.

The office of Chrzanowski’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Therefore Fusion Media doesn`t bear any responsibility for any trading losses you might incur as a result of using this data.

Fusion Media or anyone involved with Fusion Media will not accept any liability for loss or damage as a result of reliance on the information including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals contained within this website. Please be fully informed regarding the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest investment forms possible.