As early as April 2023, Matecki suspected he could be arrested and began preparing his inner circle.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza, he used Signal, a secure messaging app, to communicate with former West Pomeranian (a northwestern Polish region bordering Germany and the Baltic Sea) deputy governor Mateusz W. and another associate, Adam S.
The group set up a system of shifts to monitor for potential raids by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) and shared instructions on wiping sensitive data from their phones and computers.
Despite these precautions, when the first arrests linked to the case took place in October 2023, some messages had not been deleted. Adam S. failed to erase his chat history, providing key evidence for investigators.
Poznaliśmy szczegóły korespondencji grupy na Signalu, która zacierała ślady. Czytaj więcej na...
Opublikowany przez Gazeta Wyborcza Środa, 12 marca 2025
Corruption investigation and political manipulation
The investigation revolves around the alleged misuse of Poland’s Justice Fund, a public program meant to support victims of crime.
Prosecutors accuse Matecki of working with high-ranking officials, including former Deputy Justice Minister and PiS MP Marcin Romanowski, to rig grant competitions and divert at least 16.5 million PLN ($4.1 million) to politically connected organizations.
Beyond financial misconduct, Matecki was also reportedly involved in online disinformation campaigns.
Journalist Wojciech Czuchnowski from Gazeta Wyborcza, who discussed the case on Polish Radio 24, emphasized how Matecki orchestrated social media attacks on political opponents while publicly claiming transparency. His alleged troll farms boosted PiS-backed candidates while spamming rival accounts with misinformation.
Arrest and legal proceedings
In March 2024, Matecki was arrested and placed in pretrial detention. Prosecutors argued that the evidence against him was strong and that his history of obstructing the investigation justified his arrest.
After initially being held in Warsaw’s Służewiec detention center, he was transferred to Radom, where he was placed in the prison hospital due to undisclosed health conditions.
His lawyer has since filed an appeal, arguing that pretrial detention is unnecessary. However, Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office maintains that Matecki’s coordinated efforts to destroy evidence and manipulate investigations pose a serious threat to the case.
The Polish parliament (Sejm) lifted his immunity, allowing legal action to proceed. The revelations from Gazeta Wyborcza expose not only attempts to cover up financial misconduct but also the broader issue of political manipulation within PiS circles.
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Source: IAR/PAP/PR24/Gazeta Wyborcza