Poland's former PM's son's suspicious million dollar deal

In 2000, the son of a prominent post-communist politician, Leszek Miller, was involved in a suspicious transaction that made him earn one million dollars without investing anything. Was this a huge bribe for the son of the soon-to-be Prime Minister of Poland? The police finally get down to investigating the case that has remained in the dark over the past 6 years.

Another major corruption scandal involving post-communist politicians from the left wing Democratic Left Alliance party (SLD) may be brewing.

This time it's the son of the former Prime Minister of Poland, Leszek Miller, who earned one million dollar in mysterious circumstances back in the year 2000. The money came to Leszek Miller junior from an even more mysterious fund in the Bahamas and were, officially, a commission for a transaction, in which the young businessman's wife firm acted as an intermediary.

The prosecutor's office is investigating whether this is yet another giant corruption case of bribery and money laundering.

At the time of the transaction, Leszek Miller junior was a young and inexperienced businessman, helping his wife, Irena Miller, with her newly founded company, Net Irena Miller.

Only two months after Net Irena Miller started operating, the couple were lucky to come across the business of their lifetime - they became the intermediary for a huge transaction that involved a mysterious fund from the Bahamas. Without investing a penny, young Millers became millionaires practically overnight. Following the stunning success, never participated in any other business transaction until the end of its existence in 2005.

Investigative journalist Paweł Reszka of the Dziennik daily finds the facts of the case intriguing:

'At the first look, it's a simple story. A young businessman earns one million dollars. He just buys shares and sells shares and he wins quite a big amount of money. But when you dig a bit deeper, the story is not so simple. The young businessman is the son of a very influential politician. A politician who will soon be the Prime Minister of Poland. He earns his fortune with no risk, investing no money at all and one million dollars flows to him from a secret monetary fund based in the Bahamas. The question is why, is it just a regular deal, or an example of political corruption? That is the most important and interesting part of the story.'

One other suspicious circumstance is the involvement in the whole affair of Jerzy Jędykiewicz, another prominent figure of the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance party (SLD), and a good friend of the Miller family. Jędykiewicz has faced charges of economic corruption in connection with other business dealings.

The possibilities of criminal connections do not surprise sociology professor and political commentator Andrzej Zybertowicz. Mass corruption and silencing thereof was not uncommon in the so-called 'Third Republic' - the period of post-communist government following the fall of communism in Poland 18 years ago, argues professor Zybertowicz:

'This whole situation is pretty typical for the so-called "Third Republic", I mean for the pathologies that the present coalition attempts to counter. The first issue is that this event of this big deal happened six years ago and it has been revealed to the public only now. I think that this is connected to the pathologies of the previous government. This absolutely sensational information that the son of the Prime Minister has earned at least one million dollars practically for nothing at no business risk and this information has not been revealed by any media, by any law enforcement agencies for six years. It's a sign of very deep unefficiency or sort of a conspiracy of silence among the media or state institutions responsible for oversight of such operations.'

Investigative journalist Paweł Reszka agrees that suspicious business dealings of the then ruling post-communist circles were commmon knowledge, but hardly anyone ever dared to seriously examine them:

'Everybody knew that such deals were very common in the Third Republic but there was no proof, just gossip.'

It is only recently that the law enforcement began to investigate the mysterious connections between business and politics. Earlier it was commonplace to silence facts discrediting the ruling post-communist political circles. Professor Zybertowicz again:

'If there was even a well-justified suspicion that some irregularities powered some economic operations and these operations were connected to high officials, both the state police and the prosecutor's office - the officials responsible for law enforcement - were not eager to examine the case. The reponsibility is in all the mechanism of the state machinery: the prosecutors, the functionaries of the state police, the operatives of the intelligence services should deeply explore such cases. They simply were not fulfilling their duties.'

According to the weekly WPROST, finally after over 6 years, the officials from the Bahamas will now cooperate with the Polish law enforcement system to explain the circumstances of the transactions.

Former Prime Minister of Poland, Leszek Miller of the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance party (SLD) denies ever being aware of the existence of his daughter-in-law's firm.

Some commentators have suggested, that it may not be coincidental that the materials discrediting Leszek Miller are coming to light now. It has not gone unnoticed that the scandal coincides with the long planned comeback to the political scene of Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Poland's former president, whose position on the left of the political spectrum could be stronger once competition is discredited and out of the way.
Source: By Joanna Najfeld, polskieradio.pl