Investigation of the Orlen scandal: Billions for undelivered oil and connection to PiS

The Swiss branch of Orlen, Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS), lost 1.6 billion zlotys on the purchase of oil and oil products from Venezuela that never arrived, the company’s new management revealed last week. According to the Notes from Poland server, it was announced at the press conference of the National Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday that this case is under investigation.

“First of all, there is a large amount of money spent without any control by the management of Orlen, an amount exceeding 1.6 billion zlotys… without any control by the OTS, which spent these funds,” said Warsaw regional prosecutor Malgorzata Adamajtysová, who attended the press conference with Cornelius.

According to her, it is to blame that Orlen appointed Samer Awad, a citizen of Bahrain and Poland, to the position of OTS director, who, according to American intelligence reports, could have ties to the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Although the prosecutors did not confirm this information, Adamajtysová pointed out that Awad should never have held his position.

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In another case investigated by the prosecutor’s office, the former management of Orlen faces suspicions that they artificially kept fuel prices low in order to help the then-ruling PiS party in the elections. According to the testimony of one of the shareholders, the company suffered losses amounting to approximately another billion zlotys. The price of fuel has been rising steadily since the election.

The latest case concerns the sale of a 30% stake in the Gdańsk refinery to the world’s largest oil producer, the Saudi state-owned company Saudi Aramco. At the same time, the share was to be sold to the Saudis well below the market price. “In this case, the damage today is high, it amounts to 4 billion zlotys,” Korneluk said at the press conference.

“The matters concerning Orlen are very important from the point of view of national security, including energy security. For this reason, we give them the highest commitment and priority,” he continued.

According to Korneluk, the homes and residences of former Orlen CEO Daniel Obajtek and “six or seven” directors of the company have already been searched. Obajtek and his two close associates, Adam Burak and Michal Róg, left the country even before the investigation. Obajtek lives in Hungary, Burak in Turkey and Róg in probably Dubai, the Energia.rp.rl website reported.

Korneluk said on Tuesday that he plans to question Obajtek, but did not say whether he would be a witness or an accused. Obajtek denies any guilt and claims that “government coalition politicians, journalists, and now even the prosecutor’s office are trying to publicly lynch him.” “I have and never had anything to hide, and the prosecutor’s office has the necessary data. All transactions of Orlen were recorded and documented,” X wrote on the social network.

Petrochemical company Orlen, among other things, owns the company Unipetrol and a network of gas stations in the Czech Republic.