There is an arrest warrant for the former president of RARS, Michał Kuczmierowski

The National Prosecutor's Office informed on Thursday about presenting charges against other people in the investigation into irregularities in the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves. It concerns Michał Kuczmierowski – former president of RARS during the government PIS – and Paweł Szopa – creator of the Red is Bad clothing brand. PK reported that “the suspects' whereabouts in the country are unknown, which made it impossible to carry out procedural activities involving them.”

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At the request of the prosecutor, the court agreed to apply temporary arrest to Michał Kuczmierowski. – This is a temporary arrest issued to enable the search under the arrest warrant – he explained on Friday spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, Przemysław Nowak.

He reported that evidence had been obtained that allowed charges to be brought against Kuczmierowski and Szopa for “participating in an organised criminal group and exceeding their powers and failing to fulfil their duties in order to gain a material benefit”, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

“Rzeczpospolita” wrote on Monday that the former head of the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves, Michał Kuczmierowski, and businessman Paweł Szopa, were supposed to leave Poland at the beginning of July. According to the daily, the services have evidence that this was a planned escape from the country.

Szopa's attorney filed a motion for a so-called safe conduct, a guarantee that if his client returns to Poland and cooperates with the prosecutor's office, he will not be arrested. Michał Kuczmierowski's attorney reportedly filed a similar motion. Attorney Luka Szaranowicz also announced on Friday that an appeal would be filed against the decision to apply the arrest.

READ ALSO: Szopa's defense attorney: He was in contact with the prosecutor's office. The problem arose when he left Poland for private reasons

The investigation into irregularities in RARS was initiated on December 1, 2023 by the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw. In April 2024, the case was taken over by the Silesian Branch of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor's Office in Katowice.

The subject of the investigation concerns, among other things, the fact that, between February 23, 2021 and November 27, 2023 in Warsaw, RARS employees exceeded their powers and failed to fulfill their duties in order to gain financial benefits while organizing and processing the purchase of goods, 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 a crime 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”.

In July, allegations of exceeding powers in connection with the performance of public functions, which consisted in granting preferential treatment to some RARS contractors in connection with the implementation of an EU grant in the amount of EUR 114 million for the supply of power generators for the needs of the Ukrainethe prosecutor's office charged the director of the RARS purchasing office, Justyna G., and the manager of that office, Joanna P.