Polish prosecutors detained Radosław Piesiewicz, president of the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl), on Thursday as part of a bribery investigation tied to the collapsed crypto exchange Zondacrypto. Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek, who also serves as Poland's prosecutor general, confirmed the detention.

The case centers on a €40,000 Patek Philippe watch that the sports official is accused of accepting from the exchange's boss.

Gifts were allegedly meant to buy lobbying at UOKiK

Żurek wrote on X that "Radosław P." had been detained within the framework of the Zondacrypto inquiry, adding that further details would be released once the procedural steps at the National Prosecutor's Office Silesian Department have been completed.

Speaking to reporters later in the day, Żurek confirmed that Piesiewicz would face charges, but declined to say what those charges were. The broader inquiry, he said, involves suspected large-scale fraud and other crimes connected to the company's money.

Piesiewicz stands accused of taking bribes in exchange for favorable treatment of the exchange's sponsorship deals. Prosecutors allege the gifts were intended to secure his lobbying of UOKiK, Poland's consumer protection watchdog, on Zondacrypto's behalf. UOKiK — formally the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection — can fine companies for unfair practices toward customers, a prerogative that carries weight for any consumer-facing trading platform.

The watch itself came to light through a joint investigation published on August 24, which alleged that Przemysław Kral, the former head of Zondacrypto, gave Piesiewicz the Patek Philippe along with other gifts. Piesiewicz denies the accusation, saying 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 rather than as a settled fact.

On Wednesday, Żurek named Piesiewicz and PKOl as part of a list of people and groups being investigated over financing they received from the exchange.

Zondacrypto sponsored the Winter Olympics team, then stopped paying

Under Piesiewicz, PKOl signed a 2025 deal that made the exchange the main sponsor of Poland's team at this year's Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy. Crypto exchanges have become prolific sponsors of European sport in recent years, and national Olympic committees rely heavily on such commercial partners to fund their teams. Part of the alleged arrangement provided cryptocurrency awards to February's medalists — bonuses that never arrived after the company collapsed.

Zondacrypto, which grew out of the Polish exchange formerly known as BitBay and had been one of the country's best-known crypto trading platforms, ceased honoring withdrawals in April as a liquidity crisis hit, and it then crumbled, with Kral taking flight abroad. Losses sustained by clients total at least 350 million zloty, or about €81.4 million. Cryptopolitan also reported that prosecutors estimated 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 has been vetoed by President Karol Nawrocki. Writing on Wednesday, Tusk said resistance to the bill stemmed from 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, and Monaco opened a money-laundering case of its own.

In May, 82 of the 106 members of PKOl voted for a motion to dismiss him — a meeting he has so far refused to call. With charges against Piesiewicz now confirmed to be coming, whether he finally convenes that assembly — and what the National Prosecutor's Office Silesian Department details once its procedural steps are complete — are the immediate questions hanging over Polish sport's governing body.

Piesiewicz "should never have been the president of the PKOl" and had "disgraced Polish Olympism," sport minister Jakub Rutnicki said in a post on X.