Friday, May 29, 2009

Kammelgate

KammelgateA famous Polish TV presenter and his fiancée might face trial for wheedling 16 million zlotys out of Pekao S.A. Bank.

Tomasz Kammel, former TVP presenter and his fiancée Katarzyna Niezgoda – who is a former deputy president at Pekao S.A., Poland’s second largest bank - are involved in a major scandal which the press has named ‘Kammelgate’.

The Internal Security Agency, suspecting nepotism, is concerned that a state bank may have lost millions of zloty by Niezgoda giving a large contract for employee training to a company involving her husband, when the Pekao SA could have done the training ‘in-house’.

In April 2009, media revealed that Niezgoda commissioned the “Sparrow” company to carry out training at the Pekao S.A bank, when she was a deputy president. In 2007 the company was co-owned by Niezgoda’s fiancé Tomasz Kammel, who later sold his shares but continued working for the company.

In 2001-2004 Sparrow earned approximately 1 million zlotys (230,000 euros) a year; in 2005, when Kammel and Niezgoda became partners, profits rose to 5,5 million zlotys (1,2 million euros) and after 2005 reached almost 10 million zlotys (2,3 million euros) a year.

The Internal Security Agency which has investigated the case and established that Pekao S.A might have lost 16 million zlotys (3,6 million euros) due to Kammel and Niezgoda. The Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw is to decide whether the former TV presenter and his fiancée will be brought to trial.

As a result of the scandal Katarzyna Niezgoda lost her job at the Pekao S.A. bank and Tomasz Kammel was fired from TVP.
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