9◼ REMARKS Bloomberg Businessweek September 30, 2019
AnaccusationhadbeenmadeagainstPrzemyslawKrych,and,
atabout9 onthemorningofDec.19,2017,hewasarrestedat
hishomeinWarsaw.Thefinancierwassuretherehadbeena
misunderstanding,and,asarmedagentsofthePolishgovern-
menttookhimawayinhandcuffs,heconfidentlytoldhiswife
he’dbebacklaterintheafternoon.
Howcouldit notbea mistake?Krychwasthefounderand
co-managingdirectorofGriffinRealEstate,whichhadmore
than$5.6billioninassetsundermanagementandwasa part-
nerinhugelocalprojectswithglobalinvestmentluminaries
PacificInvestmentManagementCo.andOaktreeCapitalGroup
LLC.Hecarriedhissuccesswitha swagger,typicallyexplain-
inghisbusinessthisway:“Griffindoesn’tdeveloprealestate.
Webuyrealestatedevelopersandbecomethebiggestplayer
inthemarketsweenter.”Hehobnobbedwithpowerfulpoliti-
ciansandknewwhatmadethegovernmenttick.Thisarrest,
hewascertain,wouldbeclearedupquickly.
ButKrychwouldn’tbebackintheafternoontoseehis
wife.Infact,hewouldn’tbehomeformonths.Hewastold
thechargeinvolvedwhatappearedtobea 1 million-zloty
($251,000)bribetoStanislawKogut,chairmanoftheinfrastruc-
turecommitteeinPoland’sSenate.Krychdeniedit,sayingthe
sumwaspartofthetotalof$550,000he’dgiventothesenator’s
multiplesclerosischarityovermorethana decade.Thislatest
amountwasearmarkedfora newbuildingforkidswithautism.
Theprosecutorsdidn’tchargeKrychwithwrongdoing,but
theyarguedhemighttamperwithevidenceif releasedand
demandedthebusinessmanbekeptbehindbarsuntilhetold
themwhattheywantedtoknow—asPolishlawallows.Krych
insistedtherewasnothingtotell.Thejudgeagreedwiththe
governmentandremandedKrychtoa prisoninSosnowiec
insouthernPoland.
AndprisonwaswhereKrychsayshisstory,already
Kafkaesque,tookonthecreepyshadingsofa horrormovie.
Hisordeal,hesays,is a parableofcontemporaryPoland:how
thedisruptivebehaviorandfeudalorganizationofthepopu-
listgovernmenthavecorrodedthejudiciaryandareendan-
geringnotjustcivilrightsingeneralbutalsothestability that
businesses need to prosper. “The notion that the authorities
respect laws is pure fiction,” Krych says.
In Sosnowiec, around February 2018, after weeks in what
was effectively solitary confinement, Krych was allowed to
take walks around a barbed wire enclosure about the size of
a tennis court. One day he was joined by two strangers who
kept several steps behind him in the exercise yard but were
close enough that he could hear what they were telling him.
He says they offered a proposition and a number of threats:
Give us dirt on opposition politicians or we will destroy you.
The destruction could come in many ways, Krych recalls. Child
pornography would be planted in his computer; his 16-year-old
daughter would be sent to a treatment facility for victims of
molestation; his wife would be arrested for embezzlement.
Krych demurred. He said he had no information to trade.
But the two men continued to hound him at the exercise
court and beyond. They’d walk into the showers as Krych was
bathing, disrobe, and talk among themselves as if he weren’t
there, discussing details of Krych’s life few people would have
known. The duo weren’t the only people who seemed famil-
iar with Krych’s private life. At night, he says, a person nearby
would yell out to someone beyond the prison fence, a woman
who stood on a hill listening like a bereft lover in a melodrama.
But Krych recognized the script of their romance: snippets
from letters he was allowed to send his wife from jail, as well
as pre-prison family correspondence from his computer and
messages from the WhatsApp account on his phone.
The harassment Krych says he endured took other forms.
People who appeared to be prison guards—their uniforms
sloppily put on, decorated with insignias that changed from
day to day—told him to have his belongings ready and packed
because he could be moved at any moment to a cell with vio-
lent convicts and rapists. He was never relocated.
What did the men want? According to Krych, they were
after evidence of corruption among municipal politicians run-
ning against candidates of the ruling party. Government pros-
ecutors, the men said, were always ready to strike a deal. The
businessman mentioned these encounters to his lawyers, who
accompanied him to interrogations by the prosecutor’s office
in nearby Katowice. But Krych didn’t bring it up during ques-
tioning; he believed it was pointless because his harassers and
the government were on the same side.
The prosecutor’s office and Poland’s prison agency
declined to comment on Krych’s description of his treatment.
Asked if his accusations might be borne out by surveillance
video, the agency said that while recording was routine at
the facility, the tapes were erased every two weeks. Prison
officials say there’s no longer any video evidence of Krych’s
six-month stay at Sosnowiec. Much of this story is therefore
based on what Krych says happened to him.Krych’sdetentionwassupposedtolastthreemonths,but
prosecutors got the court to extend it another three. Finally,
on June 19, 2018, he was released and ordered to report to the
local police station every month. He’d be asked at each session
to turn over evidence about the alleged bribe, but the proceed-
ings seemed increasingly perfunctory, almost as if the author-
ities had lost interest in him. “No new ground was covered
during the meetings,” Krych says. “It was the same questions,
which I answered in the same way.” In the nearly two years
since he was arrested, Krych hasn’t been charged with a crime.
(The day after this story ran online, the prosecutor’s office
said that Krych’s arrest was a “judicial decision issued by an
independent court after examining the evidence,” that he “did
not complain about the conditions of his detention,” and that
his “line of defense” was “completely untrustworthy.”)
Since he regained his freedom, he says he’s been able to
discern the reasons for his detention. Krych is one of Poland’s
preeminentbusinessmen,buthebelieveshewasmerelya
pawninoneofthefeudswithintheLawandJusticeparty—
specifically a shadowy contest that involved undermining
Senator Kogut, the infrastructure committee chairman.