On 28 November, the prosecutor filed an indictment against two residents of Jelenia Góra: 44-year-old Tadeusz A. and 40-year-old Robert B., whom the investigation accused of committing and attempting to commit so-called litigation fraud.
The case began in July 2011, when 32 claims for payment of amounts arising from bills of exchange were filed with the District Court in Jelenia Góra (a total of more than PLN 392,000). The court granted the claims and awarded the amounts arising from the bills of exchange, as well as ordering the defendants to pay the costs. Robert B. was the claimant, acting in this case through another legal counsel.
As a result of the claims filed, the District Court in Jelenia Góra issued 32 payment orders, ordering the defendants to pay the claimant the amounts stated on the bills of exchange, together with contractual interest of 19% per annum and reimbursement of the proceedings’ costs, including legal representation costs.
The defendants lodged objections to 23 payment orders; eight became final, providing grounds for issuing enforcement clauses, while in one case the parties reached a settlement. Some of the cases were examined by the Regional Court in appellate proceedings.
A total of 31 final court rulings were issued, including 15 granting claims for a total amount of no less than PLN 145,427, and 16 dismissing claims for a total amount of no less than PLN 219,185.
After enforcement clauses were obtained, enforcement proceedings were initiated at the claimant’s request.
In December 2011 and January 2012, the Prosecutor’s Office began receiving reports of offences from people against whom payment orders had been issued. The injured parties claimed that they had no debts owed to a company based in Jelenia Góra, for which they had issued blank bills of exchange in 2000–2001 to secure cooperation agreements involving credit intermediation. Moreover, some of the reporting parties stated that, after ending their cooperation with the Jelenia Góra company, they had unsuccessfully requested the return of the previously signed bills of exchange—on which no amounts had been entered when the agreements were signed.
The investigation established that the injured parties had in fact previously entered into formal cooperation with the Jelenia Góra company, which was involved, among other things, in brokering loans and credits. However, some of them had not concluded any credit agreement with a client at all as part of that cooperation. In turn, those who had concluded such agreements had never been informed that their clients were in arrears with any payments—which could have constituted grounds for banks to secure funds in the guarantee fund of the Jelenia Góra company and potentially served as a starting point for recourse actions against the final intermediaries. Therefore, the injured parties consistently maintained that they had no obligations to the limited liability company. They also pointed to the long period that had elapsed between ending their cooperation with the company, then managed by the suspect Tadeusz A., and the date on which he completed the bills of exchange.
As established, Tadeusz A. completed all the bills of exchange on 10 March 2010, and the following day transferred the resulting claims to Robert B., who had previously provided legal services to the company. He signed an agreement with Robert B. under which those claims were transferred in exchange for Robert B.’s unpaid services previously provided to the company, valued at PLN 200,000.
During the proceedings, 139 people were interviewed; the company’s accounting records and data from its computer drives were secured, as were documents evidencing cooperation with the injured parties and the company’s cooperation with banks in the field of credit intermediation. An accounting expert’s opinion and an expert opinion on comparative handwriting analysis were obtained, along with analyses prepared by a criminal analyst. The files of all proceedings initiated on the basis of the 32 bills of exchange were examined.
The evidence collected made it possible to bring charges against both suspects for attempting to commit and committing 32 fraud offences—involving misleading the courts as to the existence and maturity of claims evidenced by bills of exchange that had been completed contrary to the actual state of affairs and the wishes of the people who had previously signed them. This led the courts initially to issue 32 payment orders in proceedings based on bills of exchange; those rulings effectively disposed of the injured parties’ property.
The court will make the final assessment of the evidence collected in the case. In the public prosecutor’s view, it justifies initiating a trial because there is a reasonable suspicion that the suspects committed the acts with which they have been charged. The injured parties should therefore be given an additional opportunity to present their arguments before the criminal court, whose ruling may affect the validity of final rulings issued in the civil proceedings.
The investigation also established that, in 31 cases, the signatures of the attorney who formally filed the claims on behalf of Robert B. had been forged on the claims.
For the acts attributed to both suspects, the legislature has provided for imprisonment of between one and 10 years—a higher penalty than that provided for fraud because of the significant value of the property involved.
During the investigation, the prosecutor secured part of the injured parties’ claims for compensation against the assets of both suspects.
Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Jelenia Góra/ii