Probe opens after report Polish regulator sought large bribe

WARSAW, Poland – Poland’s prime minister has called for an investigation after a newspaper reported that the head of the nation’s financial regulator sought a multimillion dollar bribe from a bank.

Government spokeswoman Joanna Kopcinska said Tuesday that Prime Minister Mateusz Morawicki has asked prosecutors and the security services to check allegations that Financial Supervision Authority chairman Marek Chrzanowski had sought the bribe.

Kopcinska said Morawiecki was summoning Chrzanowski to a meeting Wednesday.

The daily Gazeta Wyborcza reported that Chrzanowski sought the bribe from the controlling shareholder of Getin Noble Bank, Leszek Czarnecki, in return for favourable treatment.

The regulator said the allegations were untrue and amount to blackmail attempts by the bank owner.

The chief regulator was appointed in 2016 by then-prime minister Beata Szydlo of the ruling Law and Justice party.