Amber Gold and other Poland's suspicious institutions

Nope.

Yes, financial fraud is everywhere and Poland is no exception. [As one British tycoon once explained it on his way to the casino: Most people do not care about the sick, the disabled, and the chronically ill, and I am no exception!]

Many things should be done but aren`t because we live in democratic countries which allow their citizen run various enterprises in the free market.

If something should be done, but isn't done, the mere fact of living in a democratic society is not sufficent to explain why it hasn't been done.

What a coincidence! Another parabank has problems with clients` deposits. It is Finroyal, included in the black list.

Merged: Poland ,A Heaven for fraudsters/Polska jest razem dla oszustow

The huge scandal following the gold scam in which thousand of investors have lost every single zloty they invested in Amber Gold has shed some light on the complete failure of Polish justice , its endemic corruption and great uncompetence of officials in preventing fraudsters, mafia developers to flourish and continue duping people.

Some voices are saying that these victims were responsible for their lost investment ::"These were people with a low level of financial education," said Piotr Bujak, the chief economist for Poland at Nordea Markets.

Pan Bujak, maybe these people had a low level of financial education but a high level of honesty ? Maybe couldn't they imagine that a guy convicted 9 times for fraud could legally despite his past convctions set up a parabank and advertise its scam on every billboard in the country?

The 28 years old founder if found guilty Marcin P must rejoice and think that crime really pays for he faces 5 years in jail and a very small fine compared to what he has probably managed to hide offshore since 2009 and what's more his wife set up exactly the same kind of company with the same name exept that instead of beeing a SA it is a Spzoo, lol.

I really hope that the Poles who form one of the most courageous and resilient people on earth will get down on the streets and furiously wipe out all this corruption.

He?Are you 7 y/o or what?Marcin P. was only a słup and I wouldn't be surprised if he "commit a suicide" some time soon.


I do too but realistically,it's not happening.It would take a civil war and the whole system change to wipe out all the corruption but Polish society has been pacified meaning that the most rebelious ones were encouraged to leave and now we have to wait for the system to go bankrupt.It is imminent but it will take some time.

he is too arrogant to kill himself. He thinks he will get off again, just like he has in the past. Shame really. Those poor people that got suckered in by his scheme.

I said I wouldn't be surprised if he "committed suicide",(wink,wink).Marcin P. was a słup,nothing more.

you would have to describe what 'słup' means in Polish in this case grubas - I'm pretty sure pip and many other non-Polish members have no idea what a słup is

Whoever the fraudster Marcin P is he won't commit suicide why would he ? He is not even yet in jail and probably has a number of "secrets" involving some official names ,people at the highest level of the State or the Polish Courts who helped him and greatly financially benefited from the scam.

In anycase the general "Prokurator" says he wants to clean up and reopen many fraudulent cases of collision/corruption in Polish judicial system since 2007.

The thousands of victims of mafia developers from Krakow such as Bud Mar investment or Leopard SA might see a compensation soon,although unlike the AmberGold case there was no article in the Washington Post ,Financial Times etc still the failure and coruption of the Polish Justice system is no longer a secret kept within borders.

That is the exact point that needs answering, especially since Amber Gold had been on KNF's warning list for some time. Why did the Prokurator fail to launch an investigation given this? Inept bureaucracy, sheer incompetence or something more murky??

I suspect plain incompetence. It's no secret that the justice system is broken in Poland, after all.

You still don't get it,this is exactly why he may "commit suicide".Lately "suicides" are common in PL.Marcin P. was a small scale scammer but tell me where did he get the money (a lot of money) to start Amber Gold?

Grubas, how Marcin P got his money to start Amber Gold is fully described in the Polish medias, between the age of 21 to 28 he had done 54 various frauds and was convicted over 6 times

info.wyborcza.pl/temat/wyborcza/plichta+marcin

He had created another scam from 2005 to 2009 a company called Multikasa , a company dealing with utilities :Clients would pay his company and Multikasa was supposed to pay their electricity, water etc exept that he kept the money and never paid for clients'utilities.

Basically given that the Judiciary system does not work it seems pretty easy to set up any scam and rob people without any sort of problem.

Does it mean that all cases that Michnik won are examples of kangaroo court?

Are all government systems broke? Is it an example of a failed state, dangerous to neighbors and continent stability?
We heard all this before, haven't we?

Likewise all the cases where people were prosecuted for political purposes by PiS supporters and the ilk. People from both ideological sides have benefited from a crap Justice system, hence why no-one really wants to reform it.


No. Many of them work quite well. One broken part of the system doesn't mean everything is broken.


Poland? Hardly. It's one of the least dangerous states there are - everything is so wrapped up in NATO.

Today, Amber Gold owner was arrested for 3 months. Accused of serious fraud, faces up to 15 years.
Prosecutors in Gdańsk who oddly closed an eye to his activity for nearly 3 years despite various alarming info are going to undergo disciplinary procedures.




Not broken because it works after all. I would say: not as effective as it should be. :):):):)

Re your picture -- shows politics and politicians are essentially all the. A few years back the PiS government was roundly criticised by the PO camp for showing suspected wrongdoers being led away in handcuffs on the TV evening news, and that was called' 'heavy-handed pro-PiS propaganda'. It turns out that, when it's expedient, every group in power will use it.

BTW, anyone watch Tusk in the parliamentary confessional yesterday? Any thoughts?

It's probably the first time I see the photograph of someone in handcuffs and smiling...

Don`t be silly. Look at the angle the photo was taken at. Try to find other photos of arrested Plichta on the Net. You won`t because there are none except for this one, published on the site of local Gdańs news portal.

If Martin Stefanski alias Plichta is sent 15 years behind bars he will be 43 years old which is much less than what Madoff got .. and still worth embracing the world of crime .

I think they (but who?) should also send to jail the Gdansk prosecutor (s) and all those responsible for allowing Marcin Plichta and his mafia clique to rip off people and this "parabank " to operate without a licence .

After all all those officals salaries are paid by Polish taxpayers

What about the UOKIK an organization supposed to defend and protect Polish Consummers? A bunch of uncompetent and lazy bureaucrats who should all fired and replaced by effective and competent management because there is hardly any victim of a fraud /scam they really defended and for whom they obtained any sort of compensation.(your testimonies regarding this organization is welcome)

And as we learn that there are other institutions as AmberGold in the eyes of the storm my question is who will reimbursed the thousands of Poles who were ripped off?

The Government? Marcin Plichta ? I doubt they ll ever see their money back .

Now it is clear that local prosecutors from Gdańsk must have had some dirty deal with Plichta. They suspended the investigation twice or even thrice despite various institutions` official reports.


Sorry, people are to blame themselves. They risked and lost - zagrali i przegrali. Life!

PS. There will always be greedy naive people - scandals like that are a good lesson for a few years. Then another scandal erupts and so does the world go on.

Pawian,It's a little different than naivety when you're dealing with what is suppose to be a reputable business.I agree that the prosecutors should be held accountable as well as Marcin Plichta.

I have seen Amber Gold advertisements for nearly 3 years. I took photos of them and have a few in my archives. When in Gdańsk in July this year, we walked past their main headquarters.

But it has never occured to me to move my money there. I intuitively felt it wouldn`t be a wise decision.

People who took such a decision were naive.

The Tusk clique browbeat Pawlak's Peasant Party into helping the Platformers kill an opposition bid ot have a parliamnetary commission investigate the Amber Gold scam. The PM could breathe a sign of relief remembering how he was grilled by the previous commission invesetigating a gambling scandal.

Exactly. That`s the only thing that PiS is able to do - grill sb.
If they weren`t such maniacs, the commission would be created at once.

3 years, wow no wonder why there are a few of these financial scams still operating in Poland

It will be very interesting to see how the Polish government deals with such a scandal , who and how many people involved in this corruption will go to jail and fined and how victims will fight to get back their investment.

After all the Trustee Irving Picard for Madoff victims got over 2 billions back for them .

Yes! I will try to keep you informed on it.


Out of 50 billion invested into a scam.

Not bad. :):):):)

Hmmm - it appears Plichta is from the Gdansk underworld.

Also, of passing interest: ABW (internal state security) gave the Prime Minister's office a damning report on illegal activities at AmberGold back in May 2012. The Prime Minister obviously felt impotent ...

Now there is talk of getting rid of ABW.