Polish police arrested Radosław Piesiewicz, President of the Polish Olympic Committee, this Thursday in Warsaw over an investigation linked to crypto platform ZondaCrypto, which authorities accuse of financial crimes.
The operation was carried out by the Central Cybercrime Bureau and confirmed by Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek on August 27. The precautionary measure responds to an ongoing investigation related to ZondaCrypto, a platform accused by authorities of committing financial crimes.
The central axis of the first inquiries against the sports leader involves the receipt of a luxury watch valued at 40,000 euros.
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According to local press reports, the item was delivered at the end of last year in Monaco by Przemysław Kral, director of the investigated company. Piesiewicz rejected the allegations through his communication channels and assured that he acquired the watch “with own funds and in several installments paid in cash”, arguing that Kral acted only as a facilitator of the transaction.
The institutional link between the sports entity and the digital platform began in October 2025, when the company assumed the role of main sponsor of the PKOl. However, in April of this year, the Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice opened criminal proceedings for alleged fraud and money laundering reaching an amount that would reach 100 million euros. That operational situation triggered the recent declaration of bankruptcy of the company.
The President of the Polish Olympic Committee Radosław Piesiewicz has been detained on charges pertaining to the ongoing crypto-currency fraud scandal that saw Poles lose millions of euros.
TVP World’s Chief Correspondent for Poland, Kazimierz Łysiak [@kazimierzlysiak], reports… pic.twitter.com/DKJ3p8pdn5
— TVP World (@TVPWorld_com) August 27, 2026
Key Witness Deal
The progress of the judicial proceedings took a decisive turn after Kral’s cooperation with justice. The former executive of the cryptoasset firm reached an agreement with Polish prosecutors during a series of meetings in the Persian Gulf. The pact allowed him to become the main prosecution witness to clarify the structure of the fraud.
The implications of the case have transcended the sports sphere to settle in national politics, after it came to light that ZondaCrypto financed activities of Karol Nawrocki’s presidential campaign in 2025. In this context, Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke out about the recent refusals of the Executive to approve regulations on digital assets. He suggested that these links explain why the President’s political bloc vetoed the proposed legislation to control the cryptocurrency market.
THE BLOCK: Polish Olympic Committee President Radosław Piesiewicz has been detained as part of a criminal investigation into Zondacrypto, according to Poland’s attorney general.
Zondacrypto, a Europe-based crypto exchange, ceased trading in April. pic.twitter.com/98eFKnRiAo
— The Block (@TheBlockCo) August 27, 2026
The arrest of the Olympic leader opens a breach in the sports leadership and places the investigation at the intersection of sports, business and politics. The case will test how far the links between the digital asset company and Polish institutions reach, while the former sponsor has already declared bankruptcy and its former director has become the state’s main witness.
The coming weeks will determine whether the precautionary measure becomes formal charges against Piesiewicz, who maintains his innocence and claims that the luxury watch purchase was legal. Meanwhile, the political debate over cryptocurrency regulation intensifies in a context in which the executive and the presidential bloc show public disagreement over how to control the digital asset market. The outcome of the investigation could redefine both the leadership of Polish sport and the direction of digital asset legislation in the country.
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