Presidential veto of the cryptocurrency act - what happened?
In recent weeks the Polish political scene has been electrified by President Karol Nawrocki's veto of the act regulating the cryptocurrency market. The act, which had been months in the making, was meant to introduce comprehensive supervision by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) over cryptocurrency exchanges operating in Poland. Its rejection coincided with the disclosure of links between key figures from the worlds of politics, media and the crypto industry.
The affair took on an additional dimension when hotel invoices from Monaco came to light, documenting meetings between the head of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges and an influential publisher of right-wing media. Taken together, the picture points to a possible conflict of interest and a potential breach of the rules on election campaign financing and lobbying.
From a legal perspective, the situation raises a number of questions about the limits of permissible lobbying, criminal liability for political corruption and the effectiveness of the Polish anti-money laundering system in the cryptocurrency sector.
Zondacrypto - from BitBay to Monaco. The history of the exchange at the centre of the scandal
To understand the scale of the problem, we need to go back to the history of the Zondacrypto exchange, formerly known as BitBay. The platform was founded by Sylwester Suszek, who disappeared in unexplained circumstances in 2022. According to his family, the founder is probably dead. His business circle included people with criminal convictions, and the platform itself was reportedly used, according to media reports, for money laundering.
After Suszek's disappearance, the exchange was taken over under the new name Zondacrypto by his former lawyer Przemysław Kral. The company was formally registered in Estonia, although it continued to operate in practice in Poland. Kral himself moved to Monaco - according to media speculation, fearing possible detention in Poland.
From the point of view of company law and financial regulation, this structure raises serious concerns. Registering an entity in a jurisdiction with less demanding regulatory requirements while carrying out operational activity in Poland may amount to circumvention of the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AML) and of the rules governing activity on the financial market.
Key legal irregularities in the exchange's operations
- Registration in Estonia with actual operations in Poland - potential circumvention of Polish supervisory regulations
- Unclear circumstances of the takeover of the platform after the founder's disappearance - questions about the legality of the asset transfer
- Reports of the exchange being used for money laundering, including funds originating from Russia
- Lack of effective KNF supervision over an entity serving Polish customers
- Sponsorship links with political and media entities raising suspicion of unlawful lobbying
The vetoed act - what regulations was it meant to introduce?
The Crypto-Assets Market Act vetoed by President Nawrocki was a landmark piece of legislation for the Polish digital currency market. Its provisions fitted within the European regulatory framework set by the MiCA Regulation (Markets in Crypto-Assets) and were intended to comprehensively regulate a sector that had so far been poorly supervised.
The key solutions provided for in the act included granting the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) real powers of control over cryptocurrency platforms. The KNF would have gained the power to shut down suspicious exchanges, block domains used for illegal activity and impose severe financial penalties on entities in breach of the law.
Particularly important were the provisions on countering money laundering and terrorist financing. The act introduced obligations to verify customers' identity (KYC), report suspicious transactions and cooperate with law enforcement authorities. In the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine, mechanisms for blocking Russian financial operations carried out via cryptocurrencies were crucial - a threat that even Sławomir Cenckiewicz drew public attention to in the Financial Times.
The presidential veto means that Poland remains one of the few EU countries without effective tools for supervising the crypto-asset market. For investors and consumers, this means a continued lack of legal protection in cases of fraud, loss of funds or unfair practices by trading platforms.
Political and business links - the criminal law dimension
The hotel documents from the Le Méridien Beach Plaza in Monaco, disclosed by MP Roman Giertych and journalist Jakubowski, are the starting point for a criminal law analysis of the whole case. The invoices document a stay by Tomasz Sakiewicz - publisher of TV Republika - paid for by Zondacrypto's CEO Przemysław Kral. The redirection of payments between hotel rooms suggests an attempt to conceal the real source of funding.
From the perspective of criminal law, the situation may meet the elements of several serious offences. If the meeting in Monaco served to agree actions aimed at blocking legislation unfavourable to the exchange, we may potentially be dealing with paid influence peddling (Article 230 of the Criminal Code) or corruption in the broad sense of the term.
Political sponsorship and the limits of the law
Equally significant is Zondacrypto's sponsorship of the CPAC conference in Rzeszów, attended by both President Nawrocki and former President Andrzej Duda. The sponsorship of political events by an entity with a direct interest in the outcome of the legislative process raises questions about the transparency of political funding and a potential breach of the rules on political parties.
Further context is provided by the fact that Andrzej Duda began working with Zondacrypto's CEO after the end of his term. Although taking up employment is not in itself unlawful, the sequence of events - from political sponsorship, through the veto of the act, to the hiring of the former president - creates a picture that requires detailed examination by law enforcement authorities.
Legal consequences and what next - the perspective for citizens and investors
The scandal surrounding the veto of the cryptocurrency act has far-reaching consequences both for the financial market and for citizens' trust in state institutions. The lack of regulation means that Polish investors in cryptocurrencies remain without effective legal protection, and trading platforms may operate in a regulatory grey zone.
The prosecutor's office should examine the following legal issues:
- Was there a corruption offence in connection with the presidential veto?
- Does the funding of a journalist's stay by the exchange's CEO constitute a financial benefit within the meaning of the Criminal Code?
- Did the presidential campaign benefit from unlawful sources of funding linked to the crypto industry?
- Is Zondacrypto in breach of Polish AML rules by operating in practice in Poland without appropriate supervision?
For those harmed by the lack of regulation of the cryptocurrency market - investors who lost funds on unsupervised platforms or victims of cryptocurrency fraud - it is essential to take legal action now. The existing rules, although imperfect, offer certain possibilities for pursuing claims.
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