Former Warsaw police chief suspected of providing paid protection
The former Warsaw police chief was reportedly involved in a protection-for-shares racket.
The Polish Central Bureau of Investigation (CBS) detained the former chief of the Warsaw police department, Jacek O., on suspicion of receiving shares in a fuel trading company in return for helping open and protect an illegal petrol station, the Polish media wrote, July 1.
“Jacek O. is suspected of providing paid protection,” Polish daily, Puls Biznesu, reported. “In return for guaranteeing permits for the petrol station he was to receive PLN 60,000 in cash and shares worth PLN 105,000.”
Jacek O. was officially included in the Polish Corporate Registry as a shareholder in fuel trading company WDJ in April 2012, after allegedly helping open a station near Ostrowa Mazowiecka in central Poland.
The suspect acquired shares in fuel distributer Naftogaz in 2011, while filling the post of security chief at Polish freight rail company, PKP Cargo.
In August 2012, PKP Cargo launched an investigation to determine whether Jacek O., exploited his position at the company to facilitate private business dealings.
Jacek O. is the tenth person detained by the Lublin Appellate Court in connection with the “petrol station mafia.”
According to investigators, the organized crime unit operating in Poland, Germany and Latvia cheated the Polish treasury out of some PLN 50 million.
