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Offshore Leaks Database

Data from
Panama Papers - The Power Players
Former Warsaw mayor; former member EU parliament

Paweł Piskorski

Later acquitted but able to open offshore firm when facing charges in Poland of using a false document

Related to

Poland

About

Paweł Piskorski was the mayor of Warsaw from early 1999 until Jan. 14, 2002, and a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009. He ran into trouble in 2005 when published reports said that he and his wife had purchased 790 acres of land for an amount that exceeded the value of assets he declared as a member of the European Parliament. He said the money was a combination of his and his wife’s savings, credit and the proceeds from the sale of real estate. The report damaged his reputation and forced him to leave his party but resulted in no prosecution. In 2009, his reputation suffered again when it was reported he told tax authorities that his income was from casino winnings and art deals. In 2010, he was charged with forging a contract with an antiques dealer. He pleaded not guilty and was acquitted in Sept. 2015.

In the data

In 2012 Paweł Piskorski acquired a Panamanian company, Stardale Management Inc, to "buy bonds of a Singapore company." In 2013 he tried to open a bank account with FPB Bank in Panama. Asked for a letter of reference from a bank, Piskorski provided one from UBS in Zürich. The Polish company that handled Piskorski's affairs explained that asking a Polish bank for such a letter "might be a problem, since the bank in Poland will know that the Client is opening the account in Panama." FPB Bank identified Piskorski as a Politically Exposed Person and requested information about his agricultural business, including his assets and clients. In April 2014 Stardale Management's board of directors tried to open an account with Eurobank Cyprus Ltd. A year later the company was dissolved. There is no evidence in the data that bank accounts were actually ever opened.

Response

Piskorski said he planned to use Stardale Management Inc. for a business project he later abandoned. The company was never active and had "no civil law contracts, no trade or financial activities, no financial transfers." He also said that he didn't open a bank account at either FPB Bank in Panama or Eurobank Cyprus Ltd. and that the company had been liquidated. "If one fulfills all legal standards and is not using it for illegal business, I see nothing wrong in creating a company in such a countries like Panama," he wrote.
This visualization contains relevant information in relation to the profiled individual. Some additional connections might show up once we release the full structured data connected to the Paradise Papers investigation in the coming weeks.

Disclaimer

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. The inclusion of a person or entity in the ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database is not intended to suggest or imply that they have engaged in illegal or improper conduct. Many people and entities have the same or similar names. We suggest you confirm the identities of any individuals or entities included in the database based on addresses or other identifiable information. The data comes directly from the leaked files ICIJ has received in connection with various investigations and each dataset encompasses a defined time period specified in the database. Some information may have changed over time. Please contact us if you find an error in the database.

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