Allegations concerning the organization of the CPAC Poland conference in Jasionka in 2025 have not been substantiated. The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Rzeszów discontinued the investigation, stating that it had found no evidence that the authorities of the Podkarpackie Province had exceeded their powers or improperly spent public funds.
The investigation, conducted by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Rzeszów, concerned the alleged abuse of authority by members of the Podkarpackie Province Executive Board and the unlawful use of public funds to finance the CPAC conference held on May 26-27, 2025, at the ZEN.com EXPO Exhibition and Congress Centre of the Podkarpackie Province in Jasionka near Rzeszów. The amount involved was PLN 1.2 million.
CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is an annual conference that was traditionally held in the United States and has brought together conservative politicians and activists from around the world since the 1970s. In recent years, CPAC conferences have also been organized in other countries, including Poland.
Investigation discontinued
Krzysztof Ciechanowski, spokesman for the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Rzeszów, told the Polish Press Agency on Monday that the investigation had ended with a decision to discontinue the proceedings. He explained that the evidence collected had not confirmed that any crime had been committed.
“The evidence gathered during the investigation did not show that members of the provincial executive board had exceeded their powers or failed to fulfil their duties,”
he said.
The proceedings were initiated following a complaint filed by Krzysztof Kłak, a member of the Podkarpackie Province Assembly. The complainant alleged that irregularities may have occurred in the use of funds from the province’s budget to organize the CPAC Poland conference.
Investigators examined the case under Article 231 § 1 of the Polish Criminal Code, which concerns a public official exceeding their powers or failing to fulfil their duties to the detriment of the public interest.
The investigation established that TV Republika S.A. was the conference’s main organizer, while the Podkarpackie provincial government acted as a co-organizer. Under the agreement concluded by the parties, the event was business-oriented and intended to promote economic development and facilitate the exchange of experience concerning the challenges facing the modern economy.
No financing irregularities found
Under the agreement, TV Republika was responsible, among other things, for obtaining a licence to use the CPAC brand, securing sponsors, preparing the event programme, inviting speakers and participants, arranging their travel and accommodation, managing registration, and selling tickets. It was the broadcaster that selected Podkarpackie as the conference venue and invited, among others, then-presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki to attend.
The province, in turn, was responsible for providing the organizational facilities. The provincial government rented the ZEN.com EXPO hall in Jasionka from CWK Operator for more than PLN 186,000. It also signed a contract with the Warsaw-based company JUSTPOINT P.S.A. to provide audiovisual services and simultaneous interpreting during the event. The contract was worth more than PLN 1 million. In addition, approximately PLN 7,000 from the provincial budget was used to finance a dinner for foreign guests.
Ciechanowski also stressed that the investigation had found no evidence that the provincial government had participated in concluding advertising agreements concerning the promotion of the Zondacrypto brand. TV Republika was solely responsible for securing sponsors and independently concluded such agreements.
The prosecution spokesman also noted that the decision to discontinue the investigation is not yet final. The parties are entitled to appeal. Should an appeal be filed, the case will be referred to a court, which will assess whether the prosecution’s decision was justified and determine whether to uphold it or order further investigative work.
Questioning, participant lists and more
It is worth recalling that in September 2025, TV Republika received a letter from a prosecutor in Rzeszów. He requested a complete recording of the conference, lists of participants and speakers, and other information.
“In connection with the proceedings conducted by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Rzeszów (…) concerning the abuse of authority by members of the Podkarpackie Province Executive Board, consisting in the unlawful expenditure of funds from the budget of the Podkarpackie provincial government to finance the CPAC conference, the Conservative Political Action Conference, held on May 26-27, 2025, in Jasionka, Podkarpackie Province, thereby acting to the detriment of the public interest, that is, an offence under Article 231 § 1 of the Criminal Code, pursuant to Article 15 § 3 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, I kindly request that the following be submitted to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Rzeszów: a complete recording of the CPAC conference held on May 26-27, 2025, in Jasionka, including in particular materials promoting the Podkarpackie Province, made by TV Republika S.A. on an electronic storage device; a list of the participants and speakers who attended the CPAC conference held on May 26-27, 2025, in Jasionka, Podkarpackie Province, at the invitation of TV Republika S.A.; and the full details, including the name and address, of the entity from which TV Republika S.A. obtained the right to use the ‘CPAC’ brand for the purpose of organizing the conference held on May 26-27, 2025, in Jasionka,”
prosecutor Jarosław Kulczycki wrote at the time, demanding that the materials be provided within one week of receipt of the letter.
Tomasz Sakiewicz, CEO of TV Republika, commented on the situation in an interview with Niezalezna.pl.
“The level of madness displayed by the current government, and particularly by the justice system, has reached its peak. The prosecution’s desire to question invited guests shows that it has no idea of the scale of the event that took place in Rzeszów. Representatives of CPAC, the largest conservative organization in the United States, were there, led by Matt Schlapp, as was Kris Noem, the equivalent of Poland’s interior minister. There were also leading representatives of the conservative world, including guests from Germany, such as the former head of the German intelligence services. There were also visitors from Japan who want to organize a similar organization in their country. There was no region of Poland or the Western world whose representatives were not hosted by Podkarpackie at the time,”
the broadcaster’s head stressed.
He pointed to the risks involved in handing over the complete list of more than 1,000 participants in the event. He said they included some of the most senior figures in US President Donald Trump’s administration, including national security secretary Kris Noem.
“We cannot provide the list of all the guests because the American delegation was accompanied, among others, by Secret Service agents. Disclosing their details could have serious consequences for their safety and could also damage international relations with Washington,”
Sakiewicz explained.
“We see the investigation as an act of revenge”
In late April this year, Tomasz Sakiewicz, CEO of TV Republika, was summoned to the prosecutor’s office to testify in the investigation into the organization of CPAC Poland.
“We see this investigation as an act of revenge against those who want to preserve the Polish-American alliance, against those who want Poland to be protected by the United States,”
the broadcaster’s CEO said at the time.
Sakiewicz argued that opponents of these ideas wanted to “hand Poland over to the Germans and the Brussels bureaucracy and weaken our defence capabilities.” He recalled that representatives of the US government had guaranteed Poland’s security.
“They guaranteed that Poland, through its alliance with the United States, would be assured technological and economic development. Today, what we organized is under attack. This event came at an enormous cost to our viewers, sponsors and journalists, who did everything they could to ensure that it was held to a respectable, world-class standard. And today this is the subject of a prosecution investigation, why we did it, what purpose it served and how much we spent on it,”
the CEO of TV Republika stressed.
He added that the event had not been organized for profit and that its purpose was to promote Poland and Podkarpackie and to ensure that “the whole world paid attention to the Polish-American alliance.”