Leszek Czarnecki, the majority owner of Getin Noble Bank and one of Poland's wealthiest men, has claimed that Marek Chrzanowski, the chairman of the national financial regulator, solicited bribes from him. The prime minister has opened a probe into the affair, having accepted the regulator's resigation.

The Getin Noble Bank is the second biggest bank controlled by Polish capital. It dates back to 2004 when Górnośląski Bank Gospodarczy, a company controlled by Getin Holding, was transformed into Getin Bank. The Noble Bank brand covers private banking services. Czarnecki also owns Idea Bank.

Polish premier Mateusz Morawiecki accepted the regulator's resignation yesterday. A representative of his office told Polish radio that a meeting between the two men today had been cancelled because it would have been "pointless." He added that the prime minister was now discussing the matter with the minister of justice and the heads of various "special services."

The upright tycoon

The details of the alleged attempt at bribery are obscure. Press reports claim that Chrzanowski asked to see Czarnecki on his own in March, an unusual request which aroused the tycoon's suspicions. Czarnecki reportedly took recording equipment into the meeting and (despite government office 'scrambling' technology neutralising two out of his three devices) picked up the voice of Chrzanowski offering him a deal. Czarnecki eventually submitted the evidence to prosecutors a long time later, on 7 November.

Since 2016, the value of Czarnecki's banks has diminished and their future prosperity is beset by regulatory hurdles which, the press has been eager to point out, might have inspired the chief regulator to think him bribeworthy. By way of explanation for his apparent tardiness in hading over the evidence, Czarnecki told the press: “This is my regulator. It is not easy to report your regulator and still be regulated by him.”

The alleged offer

According to the national daily Gazeta Wyborcza, which claims to have seen the relevant documents including Czarnecki's deposition to the prosecutors, the regulator offered the bank the following favours.

• The removal from the scene of Zdzisław Sokal, who apparently acts as the Polish president's representative at the regulatory body, because he is in favour of the Government taking the banks over.
• A lowering of some "high risk rates" that the bank has to pay.
• Support from the regulator, the KNF, and the Bank of Poland, for Czarnecki being allowed to restructure his banks.

The alleged solicitation

Marek Chrzanowski (who has been in his post since October 2016) allegedly asked Czarnecki to pay money in exchange for these favours. The 'bag man' in question, so the story goes, was to be a hand-picked lawyer (somebody who presumably could be trusted to pass the proceeds on to his co-conspirators) whom Chrzanowski could employ over a three-year period as his advisor, thus giving the payment a sheen of legitimacy. The bribe was allegedly to be paid in the form of the lawyer's inflated salary. The actual sum, according to Gazeta Wyborcza, was to be 1% of the value of Getin Noble Bank - about 40 million zloties (€9.31 million). Apparently at this stage of the proceedings the regulator was talking about the lawyer's fee being a percentage of the bank's market cap, all the while pointing surreptitiously to a calling card bearing the lawyer's name with the figure of 1% written on it.

The paper says that it has a copy and a transcript of the recording. It names the lawyer as one Grzegorz Kowalczyk. Czarnecki has presumably given the prosecutors the calling card, which they might use in any future prosecution if it bears Chrzanowski's fingerprints.