Polish Prosecutors Charge Fifth Suspect Over $2.1M in Zondacrypto Bitcoin (BTC) User Funds

Fifth Suspect Charged in Katowice

Polish prosecutors have charged Roman Ż., a former business partner of missing BitBay founder Sylwester Suszek, as the criminal probe into the collapsed Zondacrypto exchange widens to a fifth suspect. Ż. was arrested on Saturday in Poland's Silesia region and taken to the National Prosecutor's Office branch in Katowice for questioning, with the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime and regional police taking part in the operation. His lawyer, Błażej Gazda, said Ż. faces two offenses, one of them fraud, and that his client denied the allegations in an extensive statement to investigators. Officers searching the arrest location and Ż.'s registered address seized valuable watches and documents tied to Zondacrypto's operations. Prosecutors said in a detention notice that the arrest was ordered after they learned of a planned trip to China — treating Ż. as a flight risk. Gazda countered that the journey was a business trip and his client held a Sept. 13 return ticket. A court will now rule on pretrial detention.

The formal charge sheet, set out in the National Prosecutor's Office announcement issued Monday, alleges Ż. took part in an organized criminal group and misappropriated 7.8 million zlotys — about $2.1 million — in funds users had entrusted to the exchange. According to the filing, the scheme involved unauthorized changes to the platform's computer records and interference with the processing and transmission of exchange data. Prosecutors have asked the Katowice-Wschód District Court to hold Ż. in pretrial detention for the duration of the investigation, citing the risk he could flee or obstruct the case. He was detained on Sept. 5 and questioned before the charges were formally presented. The suspect denies wrongdoing. Authorities have not publicly detailed the second offense or the full evidentiary basis for either charge — a gap that will only close as the case file reaches the court.

A $94 Million Collapse

The scale of the underlying failure explains why the investigation keeps expanding. Zondacrypto began life as BitBay in 2014 and grew into one of Poland's best-known venues, reporting more than 1 million registered users around its 2021 rebrand. Trouble surfaced in early 2026 when customers reported delayed and frozen withdrawals; the company acknowledged payment delays in late February and suspended Bitcoin (BTC) deposits on March 17, citing market volatility. Trading halted in April, the website went dark on April 23, and market trackers soon showed no active trading pairs, while the exchange-linked ZND token lost nearly all of its value. Prosecutors now estimate customer losses at no less than 350 million zlotys — roughly $94 million, far above the 35 million zlotys cited in early accounts. By June, more than 3,600 complaints had been filed; investigators have frozen €4 million in one bank account and secured over 100 million zlotys in assets toward potential compensation claims.

Suszek Disappearance and Co-Suspects

The probe has also absorbed a stranger mystery. Suszek vanished on March 10, 2022, after traveling to a meeting in Czeladź; his family later received messages claiming a kidnapping and demanding a Bitcoin payment, though nothing publicly verified them. Prosecutors merged the exchange investigation with the disappearance inquiry in August, reasoning that BitBay's ownership and financial records could establish what happened to him. Ż. is at least the fifth person charged since. A court ordered three others — stock investor Rafał Z., Jaromira W. and Anna P., detained Sept. 2 — held for up to three months on allegations including money laundering. Radosław Piesiewicz, president of the Polish Olympic Committee, is charged with paid influence and favoring one creditor group; investigators also examined a €40,000 Patek Philippe watch bought by former Zondacrypto chief Przemysław Kral before a Monaco meeting. BB Trade Estonia, the operator, was declared bankrupt in August, with its first creditors' meeting set for Sept. 17. Readers tracking the market in real time can follow live spot and futures prices on Binance.

Poland's MiCA Standoff Looms

Taken together — the expanding charge sheet, the $94 million hole, the Suszek inquiry and the operator's bankruptcy — this case is becoming a defining test for Europe's post-MiCA oversight. The National Prosecutor's Office filing at the center of the story states that user funds were diverted through unauthorized changes to the exchange's computer records, a reminder that centralized venues rely on operational integrity rather than cryptographic consensus mechanisms to safeguard balances. The criminal proceedings leave U.S. customers untouched, and access to regulated venues such as Coinbase remains unchanged. For Polish depositors, the collapse strengthens the argument for self-custodial options like Tangem Pay — and for vetting platforms through our best crypto exchanges guide before deposits, not after.