Security services raid offices of Poland’s largest oil company

WARSAW

The Warsaw branch of Poland’s Central Anticorruption Bureau entered the headquarters of Orlen on Thursday to “conduct procedural activities,” according to the agency.

“Officers of the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) in Warsaw carry out procedural activities in Orlen. Due to the interests of the proceedings, we are not providing detailed information at the current stage,” the CBA said in a statement.

Commercial Radio Zet reported that the CBA has been on the premises of Poland’s main oil company since morning and is searching the offices of senior officials in the company, including President Daniel Obajtek, citing unofficial information.

It said officers are securing documents, paper and electronic, and the contents of computers from the rooms occupied by higher-level managers.

Orlen has not confirmed the search and securing of documents. “We do not confirm the information regarding the alleged search of the premises at Orlen by the CBA,” the company said when asked by Radio Zet.

The new government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has been in office since Dec. 12, has moved quickly in the media, judicial and other spheres to clampdown on alleged misconduct and anti-democratic practices by ousted Law and Justice (PiS)-led government, which ruled for eight years.

Obajtek has been closely connected to PiS since it came to power in 2015. Orlen played a crucial role in PiS’s attempts to build its media network in Poland.

Orlen and oil and gas producer PGNiG merged in 2022 and became the largest company in Central and Eastern Europe.