According to investigative journalist Piotr Nisztor, agents from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) entered Warsaw City Hall and the Municipal Cleaning Company on Thursday. Numerous documents were secured, including contracts concluded with the city by the law office of Professor Michał Królikowski, the defender of Włodzimierz Karpiński, a former Minister of Treasury in the governments of Donald Tusk and Ewa Kopacz, who is suspected of corruption.
Nisztor reported that at the Municipal Cleaning Company, agents secured, among other things, a contract concluded by the company with Rafał Baniak.
“It was signed when Włodzimierz Karpiński was the head of the Municipal Cleaning Company. He and Baniak are suspected of corruption and are in custody,” Nisztor wrote.
However, this is not the only aspect related to Karpiński.
CBA also entered Warsaw City Hall, where contracts concluded with the city were secured, including those by the law office of Professor Michał Królikowski, who is currently Karpiński’s defender in an ongoing corruption case.
Nisztor described the issue of services provided to the city by Królikowski’s office in one of the July issues of “Gazeta Polska” weekly.
According to the findings of “GP,” his office provided services to Warsaw City Hall while Karpiński was the Secretary of Warsaw. In total, between 2021 and 2023, they received over 662,000 PLN. Królikowski’s office worked, among other things, for the Corporate Order Bureau subordinate to Karpiński. It was on the request of this unit that they prepared a legal opinion in December 2021 regarding matters related to the city’s supervision over… the Municipal Cleaning Company.
According to investigators, during this time, a corrupt practice was already ongoing at the Municipal Cleaning Company, in which Karpiński played a crucial role, and Królikowski was his defender in this case. That’s not all. As part of the ongoing investigation, investigators from Katowice are also examining the aspect of City Hall’s supervision over the Municipal Cleaning Company.
Arrest of Former Ministers
Former Deputy Minister of Treasury Rafał Baniak heard charges in early February in the Silesian branch of the National Prosecutor’s Office, including leading an organized criminal group and invoking influence. The charges are related to manipulating contracts with Warsaw’s Municipal Cleaning Company worth 600 million PLN in exchange for a bribe of 4,990,000 PLN. In this case, former Minister of Treasury Włodzimierz Karpiński was also arrested at the end of February, and at the end of June, the Court of Appeal in Katowice extended his temporary detention until August 26, 2023, based on the prosecutor’s request. Karpiński was accused of jointly committing, in agreement with others, a corrupt act of demanding a 2.5% financial benefit from the president of one of the companies concerning public orders obtained from the Municipal Cleaning Company in Warsaw, in exchange for altering the essential terms of these public orders.
According to the investigators’ findings from August 2020 to January 2023, a corrupt practice related to waste management contracts in Warsaw existed. “Representatives of one of the capital groups interested in participating in waste processing reached an agreement with Rafał B.” – the National Prosecutor’s Office previously reported.
“As a result of findings related to corruption, the interested companies of the capital group obtained significant orders from the Municipal Cleaning Company in Warsaw. Subsequently, in 2021-2022, these companies managed the waste from the Capital City of Warsaw, obtaining orders from the Municipal Cleaning Company in Warsaw for a total amount of nearly 600 million PLN,” the National Prosecutor’s Office stated.
As prosecutors from the Silesian branch of the National Prosecutor’s Office found out, obtaining these orders was possible due to a proposal made by former Deputy Minister of Treasury, Rafał Baniak.
“According to the investigation’s findings, Rafał B., in exchange for facilitating public orders from the Municipal Cleaning Company of the Capital City of Warsaw, demanded a 5% bribe from the representatives of the companies based on the value of these orders. To do this, Rafał B. and the individuals managing the capital group, namely Artur P. and Wojciech S., created a mechanism enabling the withdrawal of multimillion amounts intended for financial benefits,” emphasized the National Prosecutor’s Office at that time.
“During the proceedings, the prosecutor established that to acquire money for bribes in this criminal operation, the suspects involved various entities and individuals who issued invoices covering fictitious readiness services for the rental of waste disposal machines. Subsequently, based on these invoices, companies from the capital group managed by the suspects, Artur P. and Wojciech S., transferred money, which was then withdrawn in cash by representatives of these companies” – explained the National Prosecutor’s Office.
Additionally, investigators found that the money was subsequently transferred to Rafał Baniak. “In exchange, representatives of the companies issuing fictitious invoices received a remuneration of approximately 20% of the value of these invoices. In this way, dozens of unreliable invoices with a total value of almost 7 million PLN were issued, allowing the perpetrators to generate financial resources for providing financial benefits,” reported the National Prosecutor’s Office.