Polish Court Detains Fifth Suspect in Zondacrypto Exchange Probe

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In brief

A Katowice court approved pretrial detention for Roman Ż., charged with computer fraud and organized crime membership.
Three others were held in pretrial detention last week over an alleged plan to take control of Zondacrypto founder Sylwester Suszek's assets.
One charge alleges nearly €8 million left the exchange operator's account to buy property in France.

A Polish court has approved pretrial detention for a fifth suspect in the investigation into crypto exchange Zondacrypto, Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said late on Monday.

Roman Ż., named under the Polish convention of abbreviating suspects' surnames, was charged earlier that day with membership of an organized criminal group and, within it, misappropriating clients' funds by means of computer fraud.

Prosecutors allege the group took no less than 7.8 million złoty, (around $2 million), from users of the exchange by making unauthorized changes, deletions and additions to its data, and by interfering with how the exchange processed and transmitted it. He faces up to 10 years.

Police detained him in Silesia on Saturday and seized exchange documents. He denied the charges and gave a statement.

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The Zondacrypto saga

The exchange launched in Katowice in 2014 as BitBay, founded by Suszek, and took the Zondacrypto name after shifting its registration to Estonia in 2020 under a parent company, BB Trade Estonia. It claimed 1.3 million clients, most of them Polish.

Prosecutors say an organized group operated from 2020 to 2026 with the aim of taking over Suszek's assets.

The exchange froze withdrawals and went dark in April. Przemysław Kral, the lawyer who took over as chief executive after Suszek disappeared in March 2022, has not been seen since April 16, having told customers the exchange held 4,500 BTC that only Suszek could unlock. Estonia's financial intelligence unit revoked BB Trade Estonia's license on June 29.

Anna P., Jaromira W. and Rafał Z. were placed in pretrial detention for three months on September 4. Among the allegations: that nearly €8 million left the operator's account last October to buy property in France, that a €2.9 million loan was recorded as repaid when it had not been, that two Katowice properties worth 700,000 and 800,000 złoty were handed over without payment, and that 7.5 million złoty was laundered through fictitious property purchases. A further count involves 1.7 million złoty.

One charge concerns the investigation into Suszek himself. Prosecutors allege Anna P. obstructed proceedings into his deprivation of liberty by removing a hard drive from a filling station's CCTV recorder, and incited false testimony.

All three denied the charges. The Katowice regional prosecutor's office opened the case in April into large-scale fraud and money laundering, and has received several thousand complaints.