Warsaw reprivatisation affair

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Seat of the committee of inquiry into the real estate affair at the Polish Ministry of Justice

The Warsaw reprivatisation affair (also referred to as the restitution or real estate scandal in the German-language press , Afera reprywatyzacyjna in Polish ) is a scandal that was uncovered in a newspaper article in 2016 and is still present in the media and politics today (as of 2019) in the context of the privatization of real estate in Warsaw in the post-reunification period in Poland . Prosecutor investigations led to arrests and subsequent convictions, and an investigative committee was set up. The Warsaw reprivatisation affair is the most well-known in Poland among the publicized cases of organized fraud at the public's expense. It was instrumentalized in politics and influenced the outcome of local and state elections.

course

Map of the properties reprivatised from 1990 to 2016 in an inner city district of Warsaw
The number of reprivatised properties in individual years (1990-2016)

Warsaw was largely destroyed in the Second World War , around 85% of the building fabric was lost. To enable a rapid reconstruction, a law passed in October 1945 raised Decree of the President Boleslaw Bierut , the private property on to real property and real estate. The expropriation affected around 14,000 buildings and their properties. Many of those involved in the reconstruction were given the right to live in the buildings they had rebuilt in return for their work.

Reprivatisation after the fall of the Wall

Since the political upheaval in 1989 , the return of the then expropriated real estate in Poland has been a highly controversial issue. The Bierut decree concerning the Warsaw expropriations was not officially repealed. In addition, Poland was the only Eastern European EU member to not have introduced a law by 2016 that would have regulated the return of private real estate and land nationalized after the war. Due to special laws, the churches and trade unions received expropriated property back or were compensated. All other heirs had to fight for the return of expropriated property in court. These began in the early 1990s to allow such complaints from previous owners to a small extent and to oblige the municipalities to pay compensation. These processes were time consuming and costly.

In order to provide legal security for investors and the renovation of the old building stock, the city of Warsaw decided in 1996 to return real estate independently. As a result, law firms and business people specialized in the assertion of claims of heirs. Heirs were also sought abroad. A gray market emerged on which the claims were traded. In February 2000 the Blue Palace in the city ​​center was one of the first buildings to be reprivatised under the new regulations . But even these (test) procedures for the return were complicated and lengthy. In June 2008, the city therefore issued an ordinance that also made it possible to return them using the fast-track procedure.

Information on the number of re-privatized properties and affected tenants after the fall of the Berlin Wall is contradicting itself. According to information from the Warsaw City Hall, 447 multi-family houses with 4479 apartments were transferred back from 2007 to 2016. Up to 10,000 residents could have suffered disadvantages from the privatizations between 2007 and 2016. According to other estimates, around 17,000 tenants have been forced to give up their apartments. In autumn 2016, the daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna named the number of 40,000 Warsaw residents who had lost their apartments or were affected by inappropriate rent increases. The citizens' movement Miasto Jest Nasze (The city is ours!) Put the number of people affected at 55,000 - since 2002. In a statement by the investigative commission in October 2018, 92,000 Warsaw residents were named as affected by privatization. By 2016, 4,159 decisions on the return of real estate had been made.

Most of the return notices related to real estate in Warsaw's Praga-Południe (31%), Śródmieście (20%) and Mokotów (20%) districts.

Reprivatised apartment building in Warsaw's boulevard Krakowskie Przedmieście 65

Wild privatization

After the political change, there were illegal real estate transfers in Warsaw (as well as in several other Polish cities). This was possible due to the nationwide legal vacuum, fraud of debt dealers and applicants as well as excessive demands or criminal cooperation of decision-makers in the city administration. The unregulated privatization that was practiced up to 2016 is known as wild reprivatisation (Polish: Dzika reprywatyzacja) in Poland .

Wild privatization abuse and fraud reached a considerable level in Warsaw. In addition to real property rights, fictitious claims were often asserted and accepted by the responsible town hall authority. There were different approaches. In some cases, “rights dealers” actually found heirs who sold their claims cheaply in order to avoid years of administrative procedures for reimbursement. If these heirs had little to achieve with the city administration, the buyers of the claims quickly succeeded in realizing the transfer back thanks to good contacts. However, the city administration was often presented with forged documents (e.g. wills or birth certificates) relating to such assignments. Employees in the town hall accepted these documents even without an examination or required notarial certification. If no heirs from previous owners could be found, even 120-year-old beneficiaries appeared as claimants through allegedly authorized representatives. Corrupt officials also accepted such implausible requests. If the heirs could not be found, the property could be assigned to the seeker, provided that evidence was presented that no heirs had been found despite appropriate efforts. Valuable historical shares in former Warsaw companies were also acquired and these were then submitted to the city as evidence of the legitimate claim to real estate owned by the company at the time.

Land and real estate in Warsaw worth billions of euros ended up in the hands of unauthorized persons. In addition, applicants were often paid compensation for lost usage revenues. In addition to the public sector, which lost valuable real estate, the main victims were mainly the tenants of the buildings, whose rents were increased or who were terminated at short notice due to conversion into luxury apartments. There were evictions . The house owners who realized the illegal eviction of tenants by means of "de-renting" measures (threats, shutdown of electricity, gas or water, nuisance through nonsensical construction work, excessive additional bills, etc.) were popularly known as house cleaners (Polish: czyściciel kamienic ) designated.

According to an appraisal ordered by the town hall (in 2017), 50% to 60% (details vary) of the 175 property returns examined had not been properly processed by the responsible departments.

Protest by the organization Miasto Jest Nasze in May 2016: "Haniu, gdzie jesteś?" ("Hanna, where are you?") - Asked about the mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (Haniu) who was not present at a meeting of the Warsaw City Council

Exposure of the scandal

Even if the processes surrounding the dubious privatization of property in the city have been problematical in affected circles for years, the extent of the related criminal activities and their consequences only became known to the general public across Poland through a report in the newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza . In an article published on August 20, 2016 after four months of research, two Warsaw reporters uncovered how a plot of land valued at 160 million złoty in the vicinity of the Warsaw Palace of Culture had been illegally privatized. This property, too, came into municipal possession in 1945 through expropriation on the basis of the Bierut decrees. The lawyer Robert Nowaczyk, one of the best known lawyers for reprivatisation claims, had acquired claims from alleged heirs for relatives and friends. The Warsaw city administration accepted these claims without further examination and transferred the property to the applicants in 2012. The pre-war owner, a Danish citizen, had already been compensated after the war. The decision to return the property was made by the deputy head of the property management department in Warsaw City Hall, Jakub Rudnicki, who at that time owned a villa belonging to a former defense minister in Kościelisko together with Nowaczyk . In subsequent articles it was revealed that Nowaczyk and other lawyers had secured dozens of other properties in the same way with business partners and a network of bogus companies over the years.

Personal consequences and public prosecutor's investigations

In mid-August 2016, the party chairman of the Platforma Obywatelska (PO), Grzegorz Schetyna , called on the mayor and party colleague Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz to take measures immediately to reflect the significance of the scandal. Schetyna had proposed to dismiss all four of the city's vice-presidents, which Gronkiewicz-Waltz refused. At the end of August, she fired three city administration employees because they had approved re-privatizations without proper scrutiny. One of the three, the director of the city's real estate department, Marcin Bajko, then announced that he would sue them for defamation. In September, her two deputies Jarosław Jóźwiak (reprivatisation) and Jacek Wojciechowicz (investments) were also released from their duties.

In mid-October 2016, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro ( Prawo i Sprawiedliwość - PiS) announced the establishment of a committee of inquiry that would review all reprivatisations in Warsaw. As a result of investigations by various public prosecutors (including those in Wroclaw and Krakow ) and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau , 21 people were arrested in connection with disputed returns by October 2017. Among them was the former deputy head of the real estate department, Jakub Rudnicki, who had already resigned from the town hall in 2012. The arrested were accused of bribery or taking bribes, forging documents and violating official duties. Further arrests took place in 2018 and 2019. From March 2018, legal proceedings began that resulted in convictions (fines and prison sentences).

Patryk Jaki, Head of the Verification Commission from 2017 to 2019

Investigative commission

In March 2017, the Polish government passed a law to set up a commission of inquiry ( Commission for the Reprivatization of Warsaw Real Estate , Polish: Komisja do spraw reprywatyzacji nieruchomości warszawskich). The commission is attached to the Polish Ministry of Justice . Vice Minister of Justice Patryk Jaki was appointed chairman, which is why the commission is popularly referred to as the Jaki Commission (Polish: Komisja Jakiego); he started work in May. The committee has to review the legality of the reprivatisation decisions, it can overturn the return decisions and order the seizure of illegally obtained properties by the city. Likewise, he can impose penalties against unlawful beneficiaries in the amount of the benefit obtained. It was criticized that the scope of the rights conferred on the Commission (indictment, judgment, issuing of an administrative act) contradicted the principle of the separation of powers .

The Commission has uncovered various cases of fraud since it was set up. Surveys and results are broadcast regularly on Polish state television. The Warsaw President did not respond to multiple summons from the Commission, which resulted in fines.

In October 2018, the commission published a report according to which around three thousand reprivatisations had been checked by then. The city suffered damage of around 12 billion złoty as a result of illegal returns . The State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Sebastian Kaleta, has headed the commission since June 2019.

consequences

The scandal surrounding illegal privatizations and the hesitant reaction by the Warsaw President after it became known weakened the opposition nationwide. Even if the Platforma Obywatelska distanced itself from Gronkiewicz-Waltz, the uncovered events overshadowed the PO's election campaign for the local elections in 2018 . The PiS addressed the scandal in the election campaign, supported by the frequent reports on the work of the investigative commission in the state media. Emotional reports on affected previous owners and displaced tenants were broadcast there for months. Even if the "wild privatization" flourished in the reign of Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, some dubious privatization decisions were made by her predecessors, including during the time when Lech Kaczynski (PiS) was mayor of Warsaw (2002-2005) . In January 2019, attorney Nowaczyk, who had been questioned several times by the Jaki Commission, also claimed that he was involved in the settlement of Jewish property claims on a property that was part of a new construction project (K-Towers) of a company affiliated with the Lech Kaczyński Foundation .

Gronkiewicz-Waltz himself decided not to run again in Warsaw; PO candidate Rafał Trzaskowski won the election in the capital, which is a PO stronghold. The revocation of real estate transfers by the investigative commission also led to growing approval of the PiS. The positive outcome of the parliamentary elections in Poland in 2019 for PiS was also influenced by the scandal.

With the amendments to the Real Estate Management Act and the Family and Guardianship Act that came into force in September 2016 when President Andrzej Duda signed them, the government (PiS) created regulations to avoid excesses in the event of reprivatisation and compensation in the event of expropriations. The change in the law is known as the “small reprivatisation law”. By means of this law, the City of Warsaw can refuse to transfer back real estate for public use (such as training centers or parks). The trade of legal claims was also made more difficult and a right of first refusal for the city was introduced. However, the law does not clarify questions of tenant protection when returning and is criticized by various interest groups as being too restrictive.

In the opinion of the publicist Roman Kurkiewicz, it was a mistake of previous governments not to have corrected the excesses of the reprivatisation of real estate in Warsaw and other cities by passing a privatization law:

"Anyone who continues to believe that it was inevitable that tens of thousands of Warsaw residents were thrown out of their homes by reprivatisation in the name of philosophy will never understand why the PiS came to power and - more importantly - remains in power"

- Roman Kurkiewicz : Friday , 44/2017

The journalists from the Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper who sparked the scandal were honored with an important Polish journalism award (Nagród Grand Press 2016) in the “Investigative Journalism” category.

Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz

The long-time Mayor of Warsaw Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz, 2015

From 2006 to 2018 Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz was Mayor of Warsaw. The politician belongs to the Platforma Obywatelska party. Until the reprivatisation scandal became known, she was popular and was considered a successful mayor.

During her tenure, most controversial reprivatisations occurred - for which she was blamed by many media and the public. A direct participation in the decisions of the town hall in question or a personal enrichment in the practice could not be proven. However, the mayoress was accused of not having questioned the privatization practice of her employees despite many indications of doubts about the legality of the decisions. It was only after the article was published in Gazeta Wyborcza that she fired employees; at the time she resigned from the chairmanship of the Platforma Obywatelska in Warsaw in order to be able to devote herself more to the subject of reprivatisation. Their repeated refusals to testify before the relevant investigative commission, as well as public statements, however, slowed the investigation of the return scandal.

The committee of inquiry accused Gronkiewicz-Waltz of being the main culprit in the illegal reprivatisation practice. Only after long downplaying the problem did she admit that there was a group of corrupt employees in the town hall who had given valuable real estate to various business people. She stated that this group had worked behind her back for years. She cited the lack of a law to resolve property problems as the cause of the problem. In October 2017 she stated:

“There was a group of criminals at work. It went well beyond the city administration employees whom I have since fired. Judges and lawyers were involved. The public prosecutor's office has to determine how far the connections of this group have reached. "

- Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz

In addition to her hesitant reaction to the affair, she was weighed down by the news of the return of a building to her husband's family. The property belonged to a Jewish family until the war. This reprivatisation was subsequently declared illegal; In 2017, the mayor's husband and daughter had to repay profits made from the sale of the property to the city treasury.

Jolanta Brzeska

Jolanta Brzeska memorial graffiti

Part of the reprivatisation scandal is the unsolved murder of 64-year-old Jolanta Brzeska. The incident sparked speculation about the involvement of organized crime in reprivatisation. The Warsaw woman was affected by a retransmission case in 2006. The apartment building, in which she had lived since childhood, was given by the city to a well-known buyer of property claims, Marek Mossakowski. As a result, there were disproportionate rent increases and reprisals to get the tenants to move out. Unlike her roommates, Brzeska stayed in her apartment and resisted; eviction was difficult due to her disabled status. Brzeska also began to stand up for other victims and became an activist in the tenant protection initiative she co-founded in 2007 (Warszawskie Stowarzyszenie Lokatorów) . In doing so, she made enemies.

In March 2011 she suddenly disappeared, shortly afterwards she was found dead in a wooded area near Warsaw ( Kulturpark in Powsin ). An autopsy revealed that she had been burned alive with the help of gasoline, which caused a thermal shock. The murder was not solved. The public prosecutor's office initially assumed a suicide, later investigations into negligent homicide and finally murder. In April 2013 the investigations were discontinued without any results. Relatives and the media accused the investigating authorities of mistakes and kidnapping.

In August 2016, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the now ruling PiS, Zbigniew Ziobro , announced the resumption of the investigation into the murder of Brzeska. He referred the case to a public prosecutor outside Warsaw ( Gdansk ). At the same time, he initiated proceedings against the Warsaw prosecutors involved in the initial investigations. They were accused of failing to resolve the case with the necessary care.

The tragic death of Jolanta Brzeska made her an icon of the tenant movement and an outstanding example of criminal machinations in the era of the wild privatization of Warsaw.

literature

Web links

Commons : Warsaw reprivatisation affair  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ^ A b c d e Paul Flückiger : Dubious real estate deals in Warsaw are causing high political waves. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , May 15, 2018.
  2. ↑ a b Irene Hahn-Fuhr, Gert Röhrborn: They do something! In: Zeit Online , December 6, 2017.
  3. ^ A b c d Florian Kellermann: Real estate scandal weighs on Warsaw's mayor. In: Deutschlandfunk , October 20, 2017.
  4. ^ A b c d Florian Kellermann: Test run for Poland's national conservatives. In: Deutschlandfunk , October 20, 2018.
  5. ↑ Tour: Warsaw's Old Town - the miracle of reconstruction. In: Baunetz , June 16, 2017.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g Monika Sieradzka: How Poland fights against brutal rental sharks. In: Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk , November 3, 2017 (updated).
  7. ↑ a b c d e Gerhard Gnauck : This corruption affair is even taking advantage of the Polish government. In: Die Welt , October 26, 2017.
  8. ↑ a b c d Christian Davies: 'They stole the soul of the city': how Warsaw's reprivatisation is causing chaos. In: The Guardian , December 18, 2017 (English).
  9. ^ A b c d Paul Flückiger: The Warsaw real estate scandal. In: Deutsche Welle , November 30, 2017.
  10. ↑ a b Gabriele Lesser : "Alles Banditen". In: Die Tageszeitung , July 1, 2017.
  11. ↑ Right fractions. In: Wiener Zeitung , December 27, 2017.
  12. ↑ Ewa Andruszkiewicz: Reprywatyzacja jak Wyrok śmierci. 40 tys. osób w Warszawie trafiło na bruk. In: Dziennik Gazeta Prawna , September 4, 2016 (Polish).
  13. ↑ a b c d Komisja weryfikacyjna: W wyniku reprywatyzacji Warszawa straciła 21.5 miliarda zł. In: Gazeta Prawna , October 8, 2018 (Polish).
  14. ↑ a b c d Jan Opielka: Chmielna case: Dubious owners. In: Frankfurter Rundschau , July 25, 2016.
  15. ↑ Dzika reprywatyzacja: 9 mln zł 9, szkody i brak aresztu. In: Rzeczpospolita , August 10, 2018 (Polish).
  16. ↑ a b c James Shotter, Evon Huber: Poland's reclaimed properties create scars across Warsaw. In: Financial Times , April 25, 2018 (English, paid service).
  17. ↑ a b c Tak miasto straciło działkę wartą miliony. Kulisy transakcji. In: TVN , August 20, 2016 (Polish).
  18. ↑ a b c Reprywatyzacja w Warszawie. Dyrector Bajko pozwie Gronkiewicz-Waltz o pomówienie. In: Gazeta Wyborcza , August 29, 2016 (Polish).
  19. ↑ Iwona Szpala, Małgorzata Zubík: Układ warszawski. Czy reprywatyzacja w stolicy zatrzęsie polską polityką? In: Gazeta Wyborcza , August 20, 2016 ( payment barrier , Polish).
  20. ↑ Marcin Bajko pozwie prezydent Warszawy. Chce odszkodowania za “pomówienie”. In: Polsat News , August 29, 2016 (Polish).
  21. ↑ a b Florian Hassel : How two journalists bring Poland's opposition into distress. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 7, 2016.
  22. ↑ a b c Jarosław Jóźwiak i Jacek Wojciechowicz zdymisjowani. Zmiany w ratuszu z powodu afery reprywatyzacyjnej. In: Gazeta Wyborcza , September 8, 2016 (Polish).
  23. ↑ Reprywatyzacja w Warszawie. CBA zatrzymało za łapówki urzędników stołecznego ratusza. HGW odpowiada. In: Newsweek Polska , December 4, 2017, updated: October 25, 2019, source: Polska Agencja Prasowa (Polish).
  24. ↑ "Dzika reprywatyzacja" były kierownik ratusza zatrzymany. In: TVN , April 3, 2019 (Polish).
  25. ↑ Kamil Siałkowski: Sąd zaostrza Wyrok dla kolekcjonera Kamienic Marka Mossakowskiego. Więzienie zamiast grzywny. In: Gazeta Wyborcza , October 8, 2019 (Polish).
  26. ↑ Initially, the name of the committee was Komisja do spraw usuwania skutków prawnych decyzji reprywatyzacyjnych dotyczących nieruchomości warszawskich, wydanych z naruszeniem prawa ; it was later changed.
  27. ↑ Gabriele Lesser, At the expense of heirs , June 26, 2017, Jüdische Allgemeine
  28. ↑ a b c Warsaw mayor's husband, daughter return unlawful cash from property restitution. In: The Times of Israel , January 9, 2018.
  29. ↑ Angelika Klein, Piotr Womela: Country reports: Local elections in Poland - starting shot with signal effect. In: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , October 30, 2018.
  30. ↑ a b Poland: Lawyer incriminates Kaczyński's ruling party , January 31, 2019, Die Presse
  31. ↑ Meret Baumann: Where Poland's opposition draws hope. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 5, 2018.
  32. ↑ Klaudia Knabel: A reform like no other? German Academic Exchange Service , Warsaw Branch Office Report, 2017, p. 154.
  33. ↑ laws title in Polish: Ustawa z dnia 25 czerwca 2015 r. o zmianie ustawy o gospodarce nieruchomościami oraz ustawy - Kodeks rodzinny i opiekuńczy (Dz.U. z 2016 r. poz. 1271).
  34. ^ Renata Krupa-Dąbrowska: Report z obowiązywania małej ustawy reprywatyzacyjnej. In: Rzeczpospolita , September 17, 2018 (Polish).
  35. ^ Jan Opielka: Little King Kaczyński. In: Der Freitag , issue 44/2017.
  36. ↑ Dziennikarki "Gazety Wyborczej" z nagrodami Grand Press. Press release. In: Agora SA , December 14, 2016 (Polish).
  37. ↑ Local elections in Poland: PiS strong, but not unchallenged. In: Die Tageszeitung , October 22, 2018.
  38. ↑ Piotr Makhaisky: Never da się never płonąć i krzyczeć for bólu. Rocznica śmierci Jolanty Brzeskiej. In: Gazeta Wyborcza , February 28, 2018 (Polish).
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