The seven-member team, based at the National Public Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw, is headed by Prosecutor Marek Wełna.
Justice Minister and Prosecutor-General Waldemar Żurek said on Thursday that the group would take over a complex investigation covering suspected fraud and money laundering, financial and cryptocurrency transfers, and the disappearance of the exchange’s founder, Sylwester Suszek.
Suszek founded BitBay, which later became Zondacrypto. He has been missing since March 2022.
The District Prosecutor’s Office in the southern city of Katowice opened an investigation into Zondacrypto on April 17 over suspected large-scale fraud and money laundering. The probe was merged on July 30 with a separate National Public Prosecutor’s Office investigation into Suszek’s disappearance.
Żurek said on Thursday that prosecutors were continuing to receive new evidence and did not rule out further charges against people with political connections.
"Every new witness who wants to cooperate with prosecutors is really putting new evidence on the table," he told broadcaster TVN24.
Later, speaking to Polsat News, another Polish private broadcaster, Żurek said he could not exclude requests to lift the parliamentary immunity of lawmakers implicated by evidence in the investigation.
He said that prosecutors would need more than the testimony of a single suspect before making such a move.
"We want the court, and before that the parliament, which will be making the decisions, to have hard evidence on the table," he said.
Asked whether prosecutors could seek further arrests in October, Żurek put the likelihood at "98 percent."
One strand of the investigation concerns former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, a leading figure in the conservative Law and Justice-led governments that ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk last month read portions of testimony from the Zondacrypto investigation in parliament.
According to the testimony quoted by Tusk, a witness claimed Ziobro had discussed intervening in cases involving the exchange if he returned to the justice ministry, and alleged that money was to be transferred through a foundation associated with Ziobro’s political circle.
Ziobro has denied having any direct relationship with former Zondacrypto chief Przemysław Kral, saying he never spoke to him, even by telephone.
He said a former Central Anti-Corruption Bureau officer, Artur Chodziński, had instead proposed financial support from Kral for a foundation associated with Ziobro.
Żurek said on Thursday that the role of Ziobro and his wife was an important part of the investigation and that prosecutors would examine it fully before deciding whether charges were justified.
Ziobro is currently in the United States and is already the subject of a separate Polish extradition request connected with an investigation into alleged irregularities involving the Justice Fund, which was administered by the justice ministry while he was in office.
Polish prosecutors sent that request to US authorities in July. Żurek said another request could follow if the Zondacrypto investigation resulted in additional charges against Ziobro.
Several people have already been detained in the Zondacrypto investigation, including former Polish Olympic Committee president Radosław Piesiewicz. A court has also ordered pre-trial detention for a former police officer, identified only as "Artur K." under Polish privacy laws.
The case has increasingly spilled into Polish politics.
Law and Justice (PiS) lawmaker Michał Moskal last week suspended his membership in the party's parliamentary caucus following reports about a 2025 meeting in Ibiza with Kral and Chodziński.
Moskal has said he spoke with Kral only once and denied that either he or a foundation with which he works entered into cooperation with Zondacrypto or received money from the company.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR/PAP