2026-01-15 15:42
publication
2026-01-15 15:42
On Thursday, the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Białystok submitted an indictment to the court in Warsaw regarding the allegation of failure to fulfill duties by former Deputy Minister of Finance Maciej Hipolit G. The multi-year investigation concerned counteracting VAT fraud in 2008-2015.
The evidence constituting the basis for the indictment was based primarily on documents obtained from the Ministry of Finance, as well as on the testimony of witnesses (including people employed at the Ministry of Finance), the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
The extensive investigation lasted many years and was initiated in 2016. The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Białystok informed then that the subject of the proceedings were “all actions and omissions of public officials undertaken in connection with the creation and changes of legal regulations intended to prevent VAT fraud.”
The proceedings were conducted by the prosecutor's team, supported by CBA and ABW officers. Initially, it concerned trade in electronics, but the scope of the investigation was expanded. The investigation examined extensive documentation from 2008-2015, including materials from the Ministry of Finance. In recent years, some of its threads have been discontinued.
In a statement on Thursday, the prosecutor's office announced that – according to the findings of its investigation – during work in 2013 on amending the provisions on the tax on goods and services, some provisions were deleted (the settlement of VAT, among others, in the electronics industry).
These provisions – as reported by the prosecutor's office – were supposed to be “a response to the growing criminal abuses of goods and services tax in the territory of the Republic of Poland at that time, especially in the trade of electronics as the so-called sensitive goods”; it was intended to put an end to VAT fraud, perform a preventive function and limit fraud related to VAT refund fraud.
In the opinion of the prosecutor's office, this is the then deputy minister Maciej Hipolit G. – without consultations and analyses, being aware of the increase in criminal VAT abuses, especially in the electronics trade – decided to remove from the draft amendment the provisions regarding, among others, electronic products.
“Therefore, as a public official – Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Finance, being obliged (…) to supervise work related to the preparation of draft amendments to tax law, to supervise the implementation of tasks in the field of tax on goods and services, as well as to substantive supervision of tasks carried out by the Department of Tax on Goods and Services, he failed to fulfill his obligations regarding the proper implementation of the state's tax policy, thereby acting to the detriment of the public interest – the Treasury. States,” the prosecutor's office said.
This charge carries a penalty of up to three years in prison. Bail is granted to the accused. Investigators do not say whether he confessed to the accusation or what explanations he gave during the investigation.
The indictment was sent to the District Court for Warsaw Śródmieście. Maciej Hipolit G. was deputy minister of finance in the PO-PSL government in 2008-2013. (PAP)
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