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Polish Olympic chief Radosław Piesiewicz arrested in crypto graft probe tied to Zondacrypto collapse
The head of Poland's Olympic Committee faces detention over alleged kickbacks from a crypto platform whose failure may have cost customers up to €540 million
Radosław Piesiewicz, president of the Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl), was detained on August 27 as part of a widening investigation into fraud and money laundering connected to crypto platform Zondacrypto. Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek confirmed the arrest, capping months of mounting pressure on one of the most powerful figures in Polish sports.
The probe, which was formally opened on April 17, centers on Zondacrypto’s spectacularly short life as PKOl’s general sponsor. The platform signed on in October 2025, promising token-based rewards for athletes. Weeks later, it effectively stopped functioning, leaving thousands of customers with estimated losses as high as 2.4 billion zł, roughly €540 million.
The alleged kickbacks
Prosecutors allege Piesiewicz personally benefited from his relationship with Zondacrypto in ways that went well beyond a typical sponsorship handshake. Among the items flagged: a luxury watch valued at approximately €40,000, plus travel expenses and match tickets that brought the total alleged haul to somewhere between 190,000 and 216,000 zł, or around €40,000 to €45,000.
Piesiewicz has denied any wrongdoing. He claims the watch was purchased with his own money and has characterized the accusations as a politically motivated smear campaign.
He previously faced questions over alleged fake invoices totaling around 9.3 million zł during his tenure with other sports institutions.
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Zondacrypto’s rapid rise and faster fall
The company became PKOl’s general sponsor on October 22, 2025, positioning itself as an innovative bridge between crypto and athletic achievement. Polish athletes would receive token-based rewards they could eventually convert to cash.
Within weeks of launch, the platform’s operations began to unravel. Customers found themselves unable to withdraw funds. Athletes discovered their reward tokens were effectively worthless.
Lower-end figures put customer losses at around 350 million zł. The upper bound, 2.4 billion zł, would make it one of the largest crypto-related financial scandals in Central European history. Thousands of affected customers have filed complaints. By April 2026, most of Poland’s sports federations had called for Piesiewicz’s resignation. He refused, which made his eventual arrest all the more dramatic.