Polish prosecutors charged a former business partner of Sylwester Suszek, the missing founder of crypto exchange BitBay that rebranded into Zondacrypto, with two offenses including fraud.
The move comes as authorities widen their investigation into the collapse of the exchange. Zondacrypto was founded as BitBay back in 2014, and had more than 1 million registered users when it rebranded in 2021.
Roman Ż. is at least the fifth person to be charged since prosecutors folded the case into the inquiry into Suszek's disappearance.
It later became Zondacrypto and stopped trading in April after customers reported frozen or delayed withdrawals. The exchange revealed payment delays for some clients in late February and suspended bitcoin deposits on March 17, citing market volatility, before its website went dark. Estonia's financial intelligence unit partially suspended the license of BB Trade Estonia OÜ, the entity behind the brand, barring it from taking in new assets.
The failure left customers facing estimated losses of at least 350 million zlotys ($94 million). Polish prosecutors opened an investigation into suspected large-scale fraud and money laundering and had received more than 3,600 complaints by June.
The probe has since been extended into next year, while 4 million euros sitting in one bank account have been frozen according to local news outlets.
The case is also tied to the disappearance of Suszek, who founded BitBay and served as its CEO before leaving the company. He disappeared in March 2022, several months after the rebrand.
Prosecutors merged the Zondacrypto investigation with the inquiry into Suszek’s disappearance in August, saying the circumstances surrounding the creation and operation of BitBay could help establish what happened to him.
Roman Ż., described by the Polish Press Agency as a former business partner of Suszek, was arrested Saturday in Poland’s Silesian region. His lawyer said he had helped manage BitBay before it became Zonda.
Ż. has been charged with two offenses, one of them fraud, and prosecutors plan to seek pretrial detention, attorney Błażej Gazda said Monday. The second allegation has not been publicly detailed and Ż. denied the charges and provided investigators with an extensive account, Gazda said.
Police seized valuable watches and documents connected to Zondacrypto during searches. Prosecutors said they ordered the arrest because they feared Ż. would flee after learning that he planned to travel to China.
Gazda said the trip was for business and that his client held a return ticket for Sept. 13. A court will decide whether Ż. should remain in custody while the investigation continues.
Ż. is the latest in a run of arrests. Prosecutors have charged Radosław Piesiewicz, the president of the Polish Olympic Committee, with paid protection and with favoring one group of Zondacrypto creditors over others as the exchange headed toward insolvency. He has denied wrongdoing.
Three more people, including stock investor Rafał Z., Jaromira W. and Anna P., were detained last week.