Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the government will once again submit a draft law on cryptocurrencies to the Sejm. Two previously adopted bills were vetoed by President Karol Nawrocki. “You have one last chance”, Tusk addressed the opposition and the president.
President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the crypto-asset market bill for the second time in February. The legislation introduced supervisory measures aimed at preventing violations, including allowing the Polish Financial Supervision Authority to suspend public cryptocurrency offerings. Earlier, a nearly identical bill had been vetoed by the president in December last year. At that time, the Sejm failed to override the veto. The bill vetoed in February differed from the previous one only in the maximum supervision fee rate.
During today’s Council of Ministers meeting, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that the government would resume work on the bill in a very similar form.
“I would like to inform you that we have decided, together with the relevant ministers, to return as quickly as possible to a legislative solution to the issue of state control over the cryptocurrency market. I am saying this today because all the cards are already on the table. No one – including the president, the leaders of Law and Justice (PiS) – can pretend to be ignorant any longer. I apologize for the strong wording, but at this point these are no longer secret notes,” he stated.
He then added that “all the facts, also thanks to journalistic investigations, not only the work of institutions, are already on the table.”
“First of all, we are dealing with a company whose origins are exceptionally murky. This is the so-called ‘brotherhood’, the Russian mafia and its money involved in organizing the cryptocurrency exchange Zonda Crypto. This involves the kidnapping or murder – as the case has still not been fully clarified – of the founder and first owner. It also concerns the financing by this cryptocurrency exchange of various campaigns linked to Law and Justice (PiS), organizing, funding, and sponsoring political events during the presidential campaign in support of President Nawrocki,” Tusk argued.
The head of government also stated that Zonda Crypto allegedly “directly financed right-wing politicians, including former minister” Zbigniew Ziobro, “during whose time as Prosecutor General the exchange flourished, even though the prosecution was well aware of the company’s origins.”
“In the end, these were unfortunately effective actions by Law and Justice (PiS), the Confederation (Konfederacja), and President Nawrocki to block regulations concerning this market twice. Regulations that, of course, will not save the world or protect all people’s savings – we are fully aware of that. But they can provide the Polish state with tools – before the prosecutor’s office steps in, before the special services step in – tools that will allow public warnings to be issued to all those who want to invest in such ventures,” Tusk continued.
The prime minister stated that “this is why we have decided to return to this bill, and to do so immediately.”
“We will submit the draft to the Sejm as early as this week. The only change I will propose is an even stricter tightening of penalties for those who exploit people’s dreams – sometimes their naivety, sometimes their lack of knowledge – to deceive them and endanger the Polish state and our security, while defrauding those who want to invest their savings. And this is my final appeal, because I do not know what other arguments could reach President Nawrocki, Chairman” Jarosław Kaczyński, “Mr.” Sławomir Mentzen “or Mr.” Krzysztof Bosak, “ he thundered.
In Tusk’s view, “there is nothing more that needs to be known here.”
“We are dealing with the biggest scandal not just of recent years, but of decades. A scandal in which both the former and current president are directly entangled, along with right-wing opposition parties, and politicians from this opposition who were directly financed. You have one last chance to show that something has gotten through to you and that, together with the government, you will want to block such gangster activity in the future. I am counting on a moment of reflection,” Tusk addressed the opposition.