Paweł Szopa spent many months in Poland. He was in contact with the prosecutor's office. The problem arose when he left Poland for private reasons and then suddenly there was a request for arrest, a desire to press charges against him – attorney Bartosz Lewandowski, representative of the owner of the company producing patriotic clothing Red is Bad, told TVN24. The prosecutor's office wants to announce charges against Szopa in the investigation into irregularities in the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves.
The National Prosecutor's Office announced on Thursday that charges have been brought against two more individuals – Michał K. and Paweł Szopa (Szopa's defense attorney consented to the use of his client's full name and image; K.'s attorney did not consent and does not comment on the case). This is about the former president of this agency during the government PIS and the creator of the patriotic clothing brand Red is Bad. It was added that “the suspects' whereabouts in the country are unknown, which made it impossible to carry out procedural activities involving them”. At the request of the prosecutor, the court decided to temporarily arrest Michał K., which will allow him to be prosecuted under an arrest warrant. However, the court did not consider the same request filed against Szopa.
The charges relate to participation in an organized criminal group (Article 258 § 1 of the Penal Code) and exceeding one's authority and failing to fulfill one's obligations in order to gain financial benefits (Article 231 § 1 and 2 of the Penal Code). – The prosecutor wants to announce charges punishable by up to 10 years of imprisonment – said prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office.
Investigation into the RARS case. There are charges and a request for arrest for Michał K..
Szopa's attorney: was in contact with the prosecutor's office
Szopa's attorney, attorney Bartosz Lewandowski, referring to the case on Friday, told TVN24 that his client had been in Poland for many months. – He was in contact with the prosecutor's office. He took part in court hearings, because I remind you that there were hearings in connection with the blocking of funds in his bank account. He took an active part in the proceedings, he was in Poland – he said.
He added that “the problem arose when he left Poland for private reasons and then suddenly a motion for arrest appeared, there was a desire to press charges against him and a rather laconic statement from the prosecutor's office, which, please note, did not indicate anywhere that he was hiding or had fled, only that his location in Poland was unknown”. – It is difficult for a person who is free, no measures are being applied against him, not to be able to stay outside Poland during the holiday period – said Lewandowski.
When asked if Szopa was currently on vacation, he replied in the affirmative.
– We have a situation where a motion is being filed. Suddenly, there is a whole media and political commotion related to this case. The prosecutor's office, which had Mr. Paweł Szopa in Poland for many months, could have summoned him, asked him, asked for explanations, suddenly files an arrest motion. In connection with this, the completely natural reaction is to file, as the defense attorneys did in this case, a motion for a safe conduct – said Szopa's attorney.
– The prosecutor's office expressed its position in the motion for temporary arrest, i.e. the prosecutor's office's position is that it wanted this arrest. It unsuccessfully requested this arrest against Mr. Paweł Szopa, so he now has certain concerns related to the procedures initiated by the prosecutor's office – he added.
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RARS investigation
The prosecutor's office recalled that the investigation into irregularities in RARS was initiated in December 2023 at the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, and in April 2024 the case was taken over by the Silesian Branch of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office in Katowice.
It was added that the investigation concerns, among other things, the fact that RARS employees exceeded their powers and failed to fulfil their duties in the period from February 2021 to November 2023 in order to gain financial benefits. This concerns “organising and processing the purchase of goods for the above-mentioned Agency, and thus acting to the detriment of the public interest”.
The basis for initiating the investigation was the information collected by Central Anticorruption Bureau classified materials and two notifications of suspicion of committing the offence submitted by the General Inspector of Financial Information. At a later stage of the investigation, the GIIF submitted two further notifications of suspicion of “money laundering”.
Main image source: Zbyszek Kaczmarek / Gazeta Polska / Forum