The Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) has failed to entrap former President Aleksander Kwasniewski and his wife Jolanta after they suspected them of receiving illegal income. The entrapment operation was initiated after recordings of secret talks between a businessman Aleksander Gudzowaty and the Democratic Left Alliance politician Jozef Oleksy were revealed. Oleksy implied that Kwasniewskis had illegal income.
In order to gain evidence that Kwasniewskis acted against the law, The Central Anticorruption Bureau needed to prove that the former presidential couple purchased a house in the eastern town of Kazimierz Dolny in the name of Marek Michalowski, Kwasniewskis’ friend.
CBA’s cunning plan The CBA’s plan was to buy the house from the official owner – Michalowski – and trace who he would hand the money from the transaction to, suspecting it would be Kwasniewskis.
On 29 July, the CBA officer signed a purchase contract valued at 1.5 million zloty (350,000 euro) with the owner of the house. The other half of the money was to be paid under the table in order to avoid paying tax. In a briefcase with money the CBA placed a GPS transmitter, which was supposed to indicate whose hands the money arrives in. However, the whole operation failed when the official house owner put the money from the transaction in his own bag, leaving the briefcase with the CBA officer.
Failed operation After the failed operation the Central Anticorruption Bureau did not manage to regain 1.5 million zloty (350,000 euro) because a notary did not agree to cancel the house purchase contract. Now, the question remains as to who will pay the costs of the home, theoretically belonging to the CBA, but under the name of “Tomasz Malecki”, a fictional person.
The Kwasniewskis operation was conducted by the same agent who was involved in the entrapment of a Civic Platform politician Beata Sawicka and a TV celebrity Weronika Marczuk-Pazura, both suspected of corruption.
Justice Minister Andrzej Czuma condemned the operation, because the CBA provoked the suspect into illegal action. Czuma added that the failed operation proves the incompetence of Mariusz Kaminski, the CBA’s head from the Law and Justice party, who tipped the Justice Minister off to potential illegal incomes of the former presidential family and demanded the arrest of Jolanta Kwasniewska.
(mmj/mg) source:
PAP/Gazeta.pl