Henryk Stokłosa

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Henryk Stokłosa, around the 1990s

Henryk Tadeusz Stokłosa (born January 4, 1949 in Lipiny ) is a Polish businessman and politician. He is one of the richest Poles. His fortune was estimated at around 200 million euros in the yearly updated list of the rich in the Polish edition of Forbes magazine in 2013. Outside Poland, he was best known for corruption and tax evasion charges against him , on the basis of which he was arrested in Germany in 2007. In February 2013, Stokłosa was sentenced to eight years in prison by a court in Poznan ; The verdict is not yet legally binding.

Life

Stokłosa comes from a farming family. He graduated from a technical college in Trzcianka in 1968 . In 1978 he finished his studies at the Poznan Agricultural University Akademia Rolnicza im. Augusta Cieszkowskiego (today: Uniwersytet Przyrodniczy , German: Natural Science University). During his studies he worked in the State Machine Center ( Państwowy Ośrodek Maszynowy ) in Margonin and from 1971 in the tourism industry. Here he worked for the state company Noteć ( Wojewódzkie Przedsiębiorstwo Turystyczne "Noteć" ). He is married and has three sons.

Entrepreneur

In 1981 Stokłosa founded the agricultural company Farmutil ( Przedsiębiorstwo Rolno-Spożywcze "Farmutil" HS ) in Smiełowo near Piła , which specialized in the production of fertilizer and the removal of animal carcasses and slaughterhouse waste. Over the years he expanded his business in the agricultural sector significantly. In addition to acquiring extensive land ownership, he founded or took over various manufacturers in the processing of agricultural and livestock products. In addition to Zakład Rolniczo-Przemysłowy Farmutil-HS SA , companies such as Eko-Młyn (flour mills), Zakłady Mięsne Łmeat-Łuków SA (meat processing), Zakłady Drobiarskie "Koziegłowy" Spółka z oo (poultry processing) or Polskie Zakowład sp. z oo (grain processing) to Stokłosa's group of companies.

He also runs two supermarket chains ("Market Stogrosz" and "Dom Handlowy Stokłosa") and owns local media (a regional newspaper publisher and Pilskie Radio i TV "100" Sp. Z oo ). He is one of the most important employers in the region and employs around 7,000 people in his companies. With around 16,000 hectares of agricultural land, Stokłosa is the largest private land owner in Poland.

The Farmutil was from 2007 to 2009 sponsor of the women's volleyball sports club PTPS Pila . The club playing in the Polish A series was called PTPS Farmutil Piła during this time .

Politician

In the mid-1970s, Stokłosa joined the communist workers' party PZPR . In 1989 , as an independent candidate, he led an elaborate election campaign, financed by him, for a Senate seat in the constituency of Piła and was thus able to narrowly prevail against the candidate of the NSZZ "Solidarność" of private farmers , Piotr Baumgart. In the first Senate of Poland (1st cadence) of the Third Polish Republic , he was the only senator who was not elected as a candidate for "Solidarność". Even in subsequent elections, he was always able to prevail as the winner in Piła by using his considerable financial resources. After the elections in 1991 (2nd cadence), 1993 (III. Cadence), 1997 (IV. Cadence) and 2001 (fifth cadence), he entered the Senate. In 2005 (VI. Cadence) and 2007 (VII. Cadence) he was not elected. For the sixth time he was able to move into parliament in 2011 ; this choice received critical comments from the Polish press.

Trial and conviction

The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau CBA was investigating Stokłosa in the mid-2000s . He was accused of corruption in more than 20 cases. According to the investigating Warsaw public prosecutor, employees of the tax authorities had interpreted tax regulations in favor of Stokłosa over a period of ten years and received bribes or gifts in return. Three senior tax officials involved were arrested in May 2006. The investigation, which was also conducted by the Central Investigative Bureau of the Polish Police (CBŚ), included investigations into a suspected business relationship between Stokłosa and the Deputy National Police Chief, Waldemar Jarczewski. He was accused of wanting to stop this investigation by complaining about the head of the CBŚ, Jarosław Marzec , to the then Minister of the Interior, Ludwik Dorn . The Attorney General Janusz Kaczmarek and the Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro stood behind Marzec. As a result, the chief of the Polish police, Marek Bieńkowski, resigned from his post in February 2007. The police's internal investigative authority later announced that there was no evidence of Jarczewski's attempt to influence the investigation against Stokłosa and that there was no evidence of any other contact between the two.

From the end of 2006 Stokłosa went into hiding. In January 2007, a Warsaw court issued a European arrest warrant against him for corruption.

arrest

On November 12, 2007, Stokłosa was accidentally caught during a routine traffic control in Winsen near Hamburg. The police carried out this warrant despite the fact that the entrepreneur untruthfully alleged that an arrest violated his immunity rights. The wife of Stokłosas appealed to the German judicial authorities on Polish television that evening to release her innocent husband. However, the German court in Winsen confirmed the arrest warrant the following day. Stokłosa asked for his extradition to Poland. On December 19, he was transferred to Poland and on December 21, on the instructions of the Regional Court in Poznan, he was transferred to Polish custody.

Opening of proceedings

His defense lawyer was the former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski , who, however, resigned from his mandate shortly after his arrest. The Higher Regional Court in Poznan overturned the regional court's arrest warrant on December 23, subject to the payment of a bail of 3 million złoty and surrender of the passport.

Complaint to the ECHR

Following a complaint from July 2, 2008, the fourth chamber of the European Court of Human Rights , chaired by Ljiljana Mijović, ruled in the “Stokłosa ./. Poland “(No. 32602/08) on October 11, 2011 that the detention of the accused in January 2007 violated Article 5 § 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Warsaw judge who was decisive at the time was a "junior" judge ( assessor status ) who, due to his dependence on the Polish Ministry of Justice, did not yet have the necessary judicial independence .

Condemnation

The trial against Stokłosa began on February 1, 2013 and ended on February 28, 2013. A Poznan court under judge Alina Siatecka sentenced the entrepreneur in the first instance to a prison term of eight years and a fine of 600,000 złoty . The court thus exceeded the demands of the public prosecutor's office, which had demanded a prison sentence of eight years and a monetary payment of only 500,000 zloty. The court saw it as proven that Stokłosa had bribed employees of tax authorities and beat its own employees. The environmental pollution caused by the illegal burying of animal carcasses, also mentioned in the indictment, was not taken into account. With reference to the corruption, the court was unable to issue an additional tax payment of 15 million zloty demanded by the Polish Ministry of Finance. In its reasoning, the court referred on the one hand to the seriousness of the offenses (social damage) and the diligence of the proceedings (around 250 witnesses were heard in around 80 hearings). The statement of the defendant's defense, which at the end of the proceedings held political reasons responsible for the proceedings, was not recognized in the judge's verdict. Stokłosa's employee who handed over the bribes was sentenced to two years 'probation and a former president of the Poznan Administrative Court was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for taking bribes and granting advantages. The judgment was not final, but arrest was ordered because of the risk of escape.

At the end of March 2013, Stokłosa was released from custody on bail of 5 million złoty; the 3 million zloty already provided in December 2007 were taken into account. In April 2013, following a complaint, it was decided that a judge involved in the proceedings against Stokłosa must apologize for announcing his illness.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 100 Najbogatszych Polaków 2013 ( Memento of the original from June 16, 2013 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. , Forbes Polska , print and online (in Polish, accessed May 15, 2013)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / 100najbogatszychpolakow.forbes.pl
  2. ^ Spotkania (magazine), editions 37–53, publisher: CCPW, London 1992, p. 23 (in Polish, accessed on May 17, 2013)
  3. ↑ Assets of Stoklosa businessman stay within his family on the Puls Biznesu website from November 23, 2007 (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)
  4. ↑ László Kürti and Peter Skalník, Postsocialist Europe: Anthropological Perspectives from Home , Berghahn, 2012, ISBN 978-0-85745-157-6 , p. 72, footnote 24 (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)
  5. ^ Marjorie Castle, Triggering Communism's Collapse: Perceptions And Power in Poland's Transition , Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham 2003, p. 196
  6. ↑ Terms of office or terms of office are referred to as cadences ( Kadencja ) in Poland
  7. ↑ Michael D. Kennedy, Professionals, Power and Solidarity in Poland: A Critical Sociology of Soviet-type society , ISBN 0-521-39083-4 , Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 388
  8. ↑ Polish tycoon charged with corruption wins Senate seat  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of November 8, 2011 (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wbj.pl  
  9. ^ Poland - Corruption at GlobalSecurity.org (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)
  10. ↑ 2007 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Poland at Refworld.org ( UNHCR ), Source: United States Department of State , March 11, 2008 (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)
  11. ↑ Police resignations linked to Finance Ministry corruption  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wbj.pl   in the Warsaw Business Journal of February 12, 2007 (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)
  12. ↑ Jarczewski nie powiązany ze Stokłosą at Wyborcza.pl from February 26, 2007, for a fee (in Polish, accessed on May 17, 2013)
  13. ↑ a b c d Judges back politician in human rights row with Poland on the Human Rights Europe website of November 4, 2011 (in English, accessed May 17, 2013)
  14. ↑ Polish ex-senator arrested in Germany  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.news4press.com   at News4press.com 13 November 2007, source Polskaweb Aktuell (accessed on 17 May 2013)
  15. ^ Case of Stokłosa v. Poland at ECHR CaseLaw (in English, accessed May 26, 2013)
  16. ↑ Piotr Zytnicki, Stokłosa skazany i aresztowany. Osiem lat więzienia at Gazeta.pl (Poznań) on February 28, 2013 (in Polish, accessed on May 17, 2013)
  17. ↑ Henryk Stokłosa opuścił areszt za kaucją on the Polskie Radio Pik website of March 26, 2013, source: PAP (in Polish, accessed May 17, 2013)
  18. ↑ Sędzia rezygnuje ze sprawy i musi przeprosić. Były senator triumfuje on the website of the Dziennik daily newspaper of April 12, 2013, source: Gazeta.pl (in Polish, accessed on May 17, 2013)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stokłosa, Henryk
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stokłosa, Henryk Tadeusz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish entrepreneur and politician, member of the Sejm
DATE OF BIRTH January 4, 1949
PLACE OF BIRTH Lipiny