Tomasz Misiak

Tomasz Misiak is a Polish politician and businessman who gained media attention due to his involvement in several scandals. He was born in Wrocław, Poland, in 1973 and graduated from the Oskar Lange Economic Academy in Wrocław in 2000, as well as postgraduate studies in management (IESE Business School, Global Leadership Seminar at Georgetown University, and Global CEO Program). Misiak co-founded Work Service, a temporary employment agency in Poland, and served as its vice president from 1999 to 2007.

Misiak entered politics as a member of the Union of Freedom and later joined the Civic Platform party. He was elected to the Wrocław City Council in 1998 and served as chairman of the Economic Initiatives Committee.

In 2005, he was elected to the Polish Senate and was re-elected in 2007. As a senator, Misiak chaired the Senate Committee on Economy.

In 2011, Misiak ran for re-election to the Senate but was unsuccessful. He ran from the election committee of the Union of Presidents - Citizens for the Senate but did not win a seat again.

On October 8, 2019, the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders dismissed Misiak from the Supervisory Board of Work Service S.A.[1]

In 2009, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced at a press conference the removal of Tomasz Misiak from the party due to a scandal involving his company Work Service receiving a contract from the Polish government for job training and placement services for laid-off shipyard workers.[2] He was accused of a conflict of interest since he was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Economy, which had worked on the legislation regarding liquidation of shipyards in Gdansk and Szczecin which made the contract possible. Later, Industrial Development Agency and his company terminated the agreement regarding services for shipyard workers. [3][4][5]

Misiak was removed from his position as chairman of the Senate Committee on Economy and left Civic Platform. He also lost his position as the head of the party's campaign for the European Parliament.[6][7]

In 2009, the media also drew attention to other scandals involving the senator and laws from which Misiak allegedly benefited. In November 2008, "Rzeczpospolita" revealed that he had lobbied for the enactment of regulations concerning commodity vouchers for employees, with a market worth 2 billion złoty at stake. The issue concerned the possibility of selling vouchers below their nominal value, which would consolidate the hypermarket monopoly. The media also reported on other ventures of the senator behind which there were financial irregularities. In 2000, as a Wrocław councilor, he co-directed the Euro Art Meeting association, which organized an event to celebrate the millennium. It turned out that the event cost not 3, but nearly 4 million złoty, and the organizers were unable to account for 250,000 złoty before the Supreme Audit Office. In another scandal, the so-called "pumping wheels" affair of the party organization at the Wrocław Economic Academy where Misiak was active, the organization had grown almost tenfold and was also expanded with fictitious members.[8][9]

In 2017, the Prosecutor's Office publicly released information about celebrities, politicians and other prominent figures who were clients of a drug dealer, naming Tomasz Misiak among the clients. Misiak was mentioned in the dealer's indictment as one of his regular customers. Misiak was repeatedly recorded by the Central Bureau of Investigation while purchasing cocaine, and these recordings were one of the prosecution's evidence against the dealer. Cezary P., the "star dealer," was convicted and sentenced to prison in December 2019. The court case took place with participation of the media and was open to public.[10][11][12]

On October 8, 2019, the Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders dismissed Misiak from the Supervisory Board of Work Service S.A.

In December 2022 Tomasz Misiak faced legal trouble as the Warsaw Court of Appeals upheld the International Court of Arbitration's decision concerning the sale of Work Service S.A. shares. Misiak was found to owe nearly 6 million PLN to the Italian company GI Group. He claimed he was forced to sell his shares and refused to execute the agreement. However, the court did not find these claims to be true.[13] GI Group obtained a favorable verdict, and Misiak was ordered to pay 5.9 million PLN. Misiak's appeal was dismissed, and he was charged with full court costs of 200,000 PLN.[14][15][16]

GI Group publicly announced that they had not yet received the compensation awarded from Misiak, as he declared that he had no assets or properties, and the bailiff executing the judgment could not find any assets either.[17]

In June 2021, protests erupted after a consortium led by TLScontact, which included Misiak's new company Personnel Service S.A. and Ukrainian company Viza Staff, was awarded the contract for handling visa applications and small border crossings at the Polish Embassy in Kiev. Concerns were raised over the consortium's inclusion of a recruitment agency, as well as Misiak's alleged links to Russian intelligence. Demonstrators gathered outside the embassy to protest against the possibility of Ukrainian workers being exploited by the consortium, potentially leading to a monopoly on the Polish job market for Ukrainians. The controversy surrounding Misiak and the TLScontact consortium highlighted concerns about transparency and accountability in Poland's visa application process.[18][19][20]

In October 2022, Misiak was one of four people detained by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau and the Central Police Investigation Bureau in a large-scale operation related to a multi-year investigation into fraud and embezzlement of over 42 million złoty from the State Fund for Rehabilitation of Disabled Persons and the Social Insurance Institution between 2010 and 2019.[21][22]

Tomasz Misiak was charged with managing a criminal group, money laundering, defrauding public funds, large-scale fraud, committing crimes against workers' rights, and making false statements in documents. Around 22,000 workers were victimized in the case. The estimated amount of damage to the state treasury was over 42 million złoty.[23][24][25]

On November 14, 2022, the court found a high probability of the accused committing the alleged acts and applied a series of preventive measures against Tomasz Misiak, including passport confiscation,[26] property guarantee, police supervision, and a ban on leaving the country.[27]