Polish business leaders charged after using church tax exemptions

Published: 2004-02-05

WARSAW, Poland (CNS) -- Polish prosecutors have charged 20 business leaders with complicity in a $9 million laundering scheme that involved using the Catholic Church's tax and customs exemptions. "The same charges have been made against all of them," said Krzysztof Trynka, spokesman for the appeal prosecution office in Gdansk. Trynka said the businesses accepted invoices from Stella Maris, the Gdansk Archdiocese's publishing house, for nonexistent services. "The list of suspects is getting longer, and these will not be the last arrests," Trynka said. Polish newspapers reported investigations into Stella Maris in January 2003 after its former director, Father Zbigniew Bryk, was arrested and charged with appropriating $5 million in fake bills and credit orders. He also was charged with tax evasion totaling $1 million and defrauding $2.6 million from a local bank.

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