Investigation in vice-president’s case dropped after payment made to PiS. Orlen: conspiracy theory
Adam Burak, a member of Orlen’s management board, allegedly paid PLN 45,000 into PiS’s account earlier this year. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, eleven days later, the prosecutor’s office discontinued the investigation into his acceptance of a ‘personal and financial benefit’. The Anti-Corruption Bureau found that a crime had been committed – the prosecutor’s office did not. Orlen denies that the payment to PiS was connected with the discontinuation of the case.
This investigation was supposed to have applied to Adam Burak, although it was not – at least for the time being – conducted against him, and he was only questioned as a witness.
The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau was investigating the activities of 1450 S.A., a company owned by Radosław Tadajewski, in an action codenamed ‘Vampiryna’. According to ‘Wyborcza’, the company received contracts for more than PLN 560,000 from State Treasury companies, including companies connected with Orlen. In return, Adam Burak’s mother had allegedly been given a job at a foundation and at least one of Tadajewski’s companies.
After all, the media had started to take an interest in both businessmen in connection with the so-called Wrocław deal.
Investigation in the case of Orlen’s vice-president dropped after payment made to PiS
Burak had been making the assurance that he had never interceded with Tadajewski on his mother’s behalf or arranged a job for her, while the regional prosecutor’s office in Warsaw ultimately concluded that the decision to employ the woman was justified in business terms and dropped the case.
Why, therefore, did the Anti-Corruption Bureau consider that a crime had been committed? The answer to that question is in the secret case files, where transcripts of the conversations between the businessmen can be found. The prosecutor’s office discontinued the investigation just ten months after it started.
Meanwhile – as ‘Wyborcza’ points out – Adam Burak was one of several managers of state-owned companies, who paid money to finance PiS’s activities at the beginning of the year. He allegedly transferred PLN 45,000 to the party’s account just before the investigation was dropped.
Orlen: there is no connection
‘This financial support of political parties is a private matter of the contributors, while all contributions of this type are public. Furthermore, there is no connection between the financial support of a political party and any proceedings,’ replied the Orlen press office to ‘Wyborcza’.
The Orlen’s vice-president’s proxy considers the connection of these two cases to be ‘a conspiracy theory worthy of the tabloid press’.
The article has been published in Gazeta Wyborcza.