The Central Intelligence Agency (CBA) is looking into how real estate in northern Poland was snapped up by a Krakow organized crime gang, a member of whose father is the head of the city’s Civic Platform party.
Investigators are especially interested in the sale of an orphanage by the local government in Sopot on the Baltic coast that has now been turned into a luxury hotel, the Villa Baltica.
The value of the building was appraised at 2.1 million zloty (244,000 euro), but bought by the Krakow based KFT company for half a million zloty less.
KFT is run by Artur Ladocha, who, in 2004 had an arrest warrant put out for his alleged activities with criminal organizations in Krakow and the famed Warsaw suburban gang from Pruszkow.
CBA investigators are especially interested in Jakub Woziak, the representative of KFT who secured the sale of the orphanage and led the project to build the luxury hotel. Jakub is the son of Michal Wozniak, head of the city’s branch of Civic Platform.
KFT bought the building only after coming third in the bidding process. The first two firms placed much higher bids, yet KFT was awarded the sale.
The CBA has requested all relevant documents from Sopot City Hall with the goal of determining who the first two firms were and that the tender process was carried out legally.
The resort town of Sopot is no stranger to corruption scandals. The city mayor at the time of the sale, Jacek Karnowski, was arrested and convicted of taking bribes from Sopot businessmen last fall.
MP Michal Woziak, father of Jakub, maintains that he was not aware of any relations between KFT and Krakowian criminal organizations, yet he refused to comment on his son’s career and business activities. (mmj/pg)
Source: Dziennik