Type B affair
The Art-B affair ( Afera Art-B in Polish ) is a financial and corruption scandal in Poland in the 1990s . At a time when the financial system was still inadequately regulated in the process of economic upheaval after the political turnaround and the introduction of the free market economy in Poland, the owners of the Art-B company succeeded in reducing the Polish banking system by around 420 using a variant of checking and bribing bank employees To cheat millions of złoty (about 100 million euros ).
meaning
The fraud process was possible due to poor legislation and controls in the Polish banking system. The dimension and importance of the Type B affair led to the introduction of strict regulations in the financial and interbank system in 1992 ( amendment of February 14, 1992 and the Money Laundering Act of October 1, 1992). A Banking Supervision was established, it was followed by the privatization of banks; the collapse of the previous banking system could be avoided.
history
The company Art-B International Corp. Sp.z oo (also: Ltd. , called Art-B for short ) was founded on February 15, 1989 by Bogusław Baksik, Franciszek Juroszek, Joanna Filak and Jerzy Pagieła in Cieszyn with a share capital of 100,000 złoty (before the 1995 currency reform of Złoty to 1: 10,000). The term Art-B should be an abbreviation for Artyści Biznesu ( something like : business artist ). On November 15, 1989 Andrzej Gąsiorowski from Wałbrzych was accepted as a partner. At the same time there was a capital increase to 1,000,000 złoty.
“ All three of us come from small backgrounds and had a difficult childhood. She taught us to use all energy to get up, to take every opportunity that presents itself. … Don't do the same thing that everyone else does, but identify and use gaps in the market. ... Our company should grow geometrically, not arithmetically. "
It is controversial whether the Israeli Meir Bar was also a partner in the company.
Art-B's business activities
Shortly after its founding, Art-B was considered an outstandingly successful example of free enterprise in the era of the Polish reformist Leszek Balcerowicz . As Finance Minister, with the abolition of the trade monopolies of state-owned companies in 1989, he created the opportunity for mostly newly founded private companies to trade with foreign countries without restrictions on the basis of the freedom of movement in foreign exchange .
Art-B initially imported electrical appliances from Germany and Korea, which were sold in the Wałbrzych area. Later, trading activities were expanded to the entire Polish market and other product groups: among other things, the company sold coffee, tea and sugar, automobiles, works of art and gold. After only two years, Art-B consisted of a group of around 200 domestic companies and also had 50 holdings abroad. The total number of employees in these companies was estimated at up to 30,000 people.
In April 1991, Art-B signed a contract with the Polish tractor factory Ursus , in which the company undertook to purchase the entire production (3000 tractors / month). This saved the non-profitable state-owned company from bankruptcy in the short term and around 18,000 jobs were preserved.
The then Polish Vice Minister for Industry, Jozef Lochowski, later reported in the news magazine Der Spiegel :
“ The three gentlemen paid the deposit with a check for 160 billion zloty (17 million dollars at the time). Just like that out of your pocket. It was a shock to us. "
The spectacular conclusion of a contract with Ursus quickly made Art-B and its three managing partners (Bogusław Baksik, Andrzej Gąsiorowski and Jerzy Pagiela) known. Even the left-liberal Gazeta Wyborcza published a benevolent article about the successful young entrepreneurs. Art-B planned to sell the tractors to Polish farmers on an installment basis. But even the offered, cheap financing option by means of an agricultural credit bank founded for this purpose did not lead to success. Ursus was insolvent a short time later; For the tractor manufacturer, there were subsequent debt cuts, restructurings and takeovers.
Art-B was the first company in Poland to handle larger volumes of trade with Israel after the end of the Cold War :
“ We are there very often and very much, every bank director speaks Polish there - says the boss Bagsik and admits that he has not only Polish but also Israeli citizenship - this is very useful for good business. The next big business should be threaded again in Israel. With the help of Art B, the Israelis want to export dairies, grain silos and irrigation systems to Poland, as well as finished components for the housing market - the most lucrative business today. "
Amounted to
Art-B took advantage of a weakness in the Polish interbank system, which was based on the inadequate electronic networking of banks and branches. The so-called "economic oscillator" (Polish: Oscylator ekonomiczny , also: Oscylator bankowy ) was a system of profit maximization in the time of high credit interest rates in Poland: One of the many type B subsidiaries asked a bank to send a check on an existing bank Issue credit and submit it to a remote, different bank. The information about the deposit of the check was exchanged between the banks over several days by post. According to current regulations, both banks had to pay interest during the transmission of information; the bank of origin until the amount is debited (which took place after receipt of the postal notification), the bank of the recipient from the submission of the check. The system was used in parallel at several banks, and Art-B even used a helicopter to handle checks more quickly . Bagsik stated in the newspaper Tygodnik Solidarność that the method achieved an additional annual return on capital of 290%.
To prevent abuse and loss of interest, although there were the default, amounts over 10 billion zloty for banks telegram to notify. Type B employees therefore always used amounts of around 9 billion zloty. The total damage suffered by the banks involved was estimated at at least 100 million euros. The method could only be used for a long time because senior bank employees had been bribed and covered the processes.
consequences
On June 18, 1991, the UOP ( Urząd Ochrony Państwa , then the Polish secret service) initiated an investigation into suspected embezzlement and corruption at the Polish National Bank and the state PKO BP . Searches at the banks followed. The President of the National Bank, Grzegorz Wójtowicz, was suspended without notice by the Spokesman of the Sejm (during the summer break) at the express request of President Lech Wałęsa . Wójtowicz's deputy, Wojciech Prokop, as well as five senior PKO bank employees were arrested in connection with the type-B check .
However, the three main accused - also posted for arrest - were initially able to escape: Bagsik, Gąsiorowski and Pagielo had fled abroad via Hanover on August 1, 1991, one day before the planned arrest, which later led to speculations about an information leak from the secret service. Bagsik and Gąsiorowski had fled to Israel on a business jet, where they settled in Tel Aviv . In 1992, Israel refused to extradite the wanted on the grounds that both managers were Israeli nationals. Gąsiorowski had invoked a Jewish mother and applied for naturalization. As a result, there were irregularities in the dealings of the two wealthy new citizens with the Israeli Paz Oil Company .
Co-partner Pagiela returned to Poland voluntarily and was hospitalized after a heart attack. In June 1994 Bagsik was arrested at the Zurich airport at the request of Interpol . In February 1996 he was extradited to Poland. On October 20, 2000, he was sentenced to nine years in prison. In autumn 2002 he was transferred to prison and in June 2004 he was released early. In 2007 he worked as a promoter for the Polish boxer Tomasz Adamek .
Liquidation of type B
The Katowice Bank Handlowo-Kredytowy SA appointed Jerzy Cyran as liquidator of the company in 1992. Even if the bank had to be liquidated as well (the losses were taken over by the NBP), Cyran was also responsible for the liquidation of Art-B afterwards . In the summer of 2013 there were reports in the Polish media about the duration (up to then 21 years) of the liquidation process and the amount of remuneration paid to Cyran as the liquidator (700,000 zloty / year).
In response to the criticism, Cyran stated that he and his employees had demanded around $ 256 million since liquidation was opened. Another $ 44 million had been found in Israel and transmission procedures were ongoing. In the course of the proceedings, the liquidator had sought 700 actions and proceedings. In the first few years eight aircraft, 76 tractors, 106 cars and 79 pieces of land were sold. 218 works of art, including by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Pablo Picasso , were sold - some of them were taken over by the Polish National Bank.
Web links
- We have better nerves. How three young Polish entrepreneurs saved the Ursus tractor factory from bankruptcy, July 1, 1991, Der Spiegel , issue 27/1991 (accessed on August 4, 2013)
- Poland's Central Bank Is Rattled by Scandal, August 12, 1991, in: The New York Times (accessed August 4, 2013)
- Profit without borders , from August 19, 1991, in: Der Spiegel , issue 34/1991, (accessed on August 4, 2013)
- Magda Łucyan (reporter), Tajemnice Art-B , report (film) from August 3, 2013 in the program "Fakty" on: TVN (accessed on August 5, 2013, in Polish)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Bachmann, Poland's clocks work differently: Warsaw before the eastward expansion of the European Union , Hohenheim-Verlag, Stuttgart a. a. 2001, p. 85; Law in East and West , Volume 39, Vereinigung Freiheitlicher Juristen, Institut für Ostrecht, Verlag AW Hayn's Erben, 1995, p. 24
- ↑ Joanna Solska, Co zostało po Art B of July 21, 2011, in: website of the Polityka magazine (accessed on August 5, 2013, in Polish)
- ^ Law in East and West , Volume 39, Association of Freedom Jurists, Institute for Eastern Law, AW Hayn's Erben, 1995, p. 24
- ↑ Report: Tajemnice Art-B , s. Web links
- ↑ Nowelizacja prawa bankowego z 14 lutego 1992 roku
- ↑ Zarządzenie No. 16/92 wydane przez Prezesa NBP 1 pazdziernika 1992
- ↑ Paweł Grabarski and Paweł Jarosik, Afera Art-B ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 259 kB) (presentation), in Polish (accessed on August 16, 2013)
- ↑ a b Teresa Semik, Drugie życie afery Art "B" of July 24, 2011 on the website of the newspaper Dziennik Zachodni (accessed on August 6, 2013, in Polish)
- ↑ Corresponding information in the cited literature includes figures from 15,000 to 21,000 Ursus employees; Suppliers may also be included here
- ↑ Why there are no oligarchs in Poland from August 22, 2012 in: Die Presse (accessed on August 4, 2013)
- ↑ Przekrój, issues 19–27; Issues 3124–3132, Krakowskie Wydawnictwo Prasowe, 2005, p. 38
- ↑ Jerzy Cyran (1936) was Vice President (Deputy Mayor) of the city of Katowice from 1981 to 1984 . In this position he was jointly responsible for the bloody suppression of the strike in the “Wujek” coal mine on December 16, 1981, in which 9 miners were shot.
- ↑ Report by TVN (Fakty24): Tajemnice Art B on YouTube (in Polish, accessed on October 13, 2013)
