Polish Olympic chief held in bribery probe over Zondacrypto watch

Polish prosecutors on Thursday detained Radosław Piesiewicz, the head of the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl), in a bribery investigation tied to the collapsed crypto exchange Zondacrypto. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek confirmed the detention.

The case centers on a Patek Philippe watch worth €40,000 that the sports official is accused of taking from the exchange’s former boss, Przemysław Kral.

Żurek, who is also Poland’s prosecutor general, wrote on X that Radosław P. was detained within the framework of the Zondacrypto inquiry. He said more details would come after procedural steps at the National Prosecutor’s Office Silesian Department were finished.

Later that day he told reporters that Piesiewicz would be charged, but declined to specify the charges. The broader probe, he said, involved suspected large-scale fraud and other crimes related to the company’s money.

Piesiewicz stands accused of taking bribes for favorable treatment of the exchange’s sponsorship deals. Prosecutors allege he was given the watch and other gifts so he would lobby UOKiK, Poland’s consumer protection watchdog, on Zondacrypto’s behalf.

The luxury watch came to light after a joint investigation published on August 24 alleged that Kral gave Piesiewicz the Patek Philippe, along with other gifts. Piesiewicz denies the accusation. He says he paid for the watch out of his own pocket and that Kral only assisted him in making the purchase. Prosecutors are probing the watch as a line of inquiry, not as a settled fact.

Żurek on Wednesday named Piesiewicz and PKOl as part of a list of people and groups being investigated over financing from the exchange. Under Piesiewicz, PKOl signed a 2025 deal that made Zondacrypto the main sponsor of Poland’s team at this year’s Winter Olympics in Italy. Some of the alleged deal provided cryptocurrency awards to February’s medalists. Those bonuses never arrived after the company collapsed.

The exchange stopped honoring withdrawals in April as a liquidity crisis hit, and then it crumbled with Kral fleeing abroad. Client losses total at least 350 million zloty, or about €81.4 million. Cryptopolitan reported that prosecutors estimate around 30,000 users may have lost over $95 million and that Kral had confessed the platform was unable to access a wallet containing 4,500 BTC.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accused Zondacrypto of funneling money to opposition figures to sabotage his government’s crypto legislation, which was vetoed by President Karol Nawrocki. Tusk wrote Wednesday that the resistance to the bill was due to a pattern of “cash for watches worth €40,000 euros,” media funding, and payments to right-wing foundations. Earlier this year, Cryptopolitan reported that Tusk also claimed the firm was linked to Russian organized crime and security services. Monaco opened a money-laundering case of its own.

In May, 82 of the 106 members of PKOl voted for a motion to dismiss Piesiewicz, a meeting he has refused to call so far. Sport minister Jakub Rutnicki said in a post on X that Piesiewicz “should never have been the president of the PKOl” and had “disgraced Polish Olympism.”