Polish prosecutors have charged a former police officer with membership in an organized criminal group, fraud and money laundering in connection with the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto, as investigators search the fuel depot where the platform's founder was last seen before he disappeared four years ago. The probe spans both the platform's financial collapse and the circumstances of its founder's disappearance.

The case has drawn several thousand complaints from clients of the exchange, and at least five other people have been charged in connection with it since August.

Detention and Charges

Officers from the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime (CBZC), Poland's specialist cybercrime force, detained Artur K. on Tuesday on the orders of the organized crime department of the National Prosecutor's Office, which said he faces two counts.

Word of the detention came in a post on X from Waldemar Żurek (@w_zurek) on September 22, 2026:

Dziś funkcjonariusze CBZC na polecenie Śląskiego Wydziału Zamiejscowego PK zatrzymali Artura K. Zarzuty dla Artura K. to udział w grupie przestępczej, pomoc w przywłaszczeniu pieniędzy użytkowników giełdy kryptowalutowej ZondaCrypto i pranie pieniędzy pochodzących z tego…

— Waldemar Żurek (@w_zurek) September 22, 2026

The first count is membership of an organized criminal group. The second bundles together causing property damage on a great scale to BitBay, BB Trade Estonia and a third entity, aiding the misappropriation of entrusted property, aiding computer fraud, and money laundering. BitBay and BB Trade Estonia are the platform's original and current corporate identities, tying the count directly to the exchange's operating history.

Suspects are identified by their first name and an initial under Polish naming convention. Artur K. is a former police officer, Polish Radio reported, citing the state news agency PAP.

A search of his home turned up documentation on the exchange's operations. He was being questioned as a suspect, after which prosecutors will decide whether to seek pre-trial detention, according to Anna Adamiak, spokeswoman for the prosecutor-general. The office did not say whether he had responded to the charges.

Search at the Fuel Depot

Police from Katowice are meanwhile searching and examining the fuel depot where Zondacrypto founder Sylwester Suszek was last seen before vanishing in March 2022. The officers are working under a team of prosecutors, supported by expert witnesses and what the office described as advanced specialized forensic equipment.

Prosecutors treat the case as one of unlawful deprivation of liberty rather than a disappearance. That classification puts the founder's fate inside the criminal case itself, alongside the allegations over the exchange's collapse. One of the earlier suspects is accused of removing a hard drive from the CCTV recorder at a filling station.

From BitBay to Zondacrypto

Suszek founded the exchange in Katowice in 2014 as BitBay. The platform moved its registration to Estonia in 2020 under BB Trade Estonia, adopted the Zondacrypto name and claimed 1.3 million clients, most of them Polish. That claimed user base is the backdrop to the several thousand client complaints the case has drawn.

The exchange froze withdrawals and went dark in April, and Estonia's financial intelligence unit revoked the operator's license on June 29.

Wider Probe

At least five others have been charged since August, among them Radosław P., the former head of the Polish Olympic Committee. Each of those who has responded publicly has denied the charges and none of the allegations has been tested in court. The next visible steps are the outcome of the depot search and prosecutors' decision on whether to seek pre-trial detention for Artur K.