The Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment with the Świdnica Regional Court against 14 people who, while running and acting on behalf of two companies based in Wrocław – TeleOpieka24 Sp. z o.o. and GasoEnergia PZE Sp. z o.o., caused several thousand people to make disadvantageous dispositions of their property by misleading them about the terms of contracts for minor services.

Prosecutor Tomasz Czułowski, press spokesperson for the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office:

As part of the investigation conducted by the Jelenia Góra District Prosecutor’s Office, it was established that customers were offered, among other things, services intended for older people, involving the performance of simple everyday tasks on their behalf, such as arranging access to medical assistance or renovation services, as well as the sale of advertising services to small businesses and gas and electricity supplies.

The contracts were offered through a network of telemarketers, couriers and company representatives.

Prosecutor:

The perpetrators exploited customers’ lack of understanding of the terms of the contracts they were entering into, as well as the possibilities and costs associated with terminating them, and even their lack of awareness that they had entered into a contract at all.

In seeking to have victims sign the contracts, company representatives used various methods of pressure, coercion and disinformation.

How did the fraudsters operate?

Investigators: – Customers were misled about the type of document they were signing, believing that they were merely acknowledging receipt of a contract which they would be able to read. In some cases, the contract was placed in front of them for signing among documents concerning entirely different services. In some cases, company representatives provided false information, claiming that they were students and that the document being signed was merely confirmation of participation in a survey, necessary to receive credit for an internship at their university.

They added: – Another example of misleading victims was assuring them that the service was financed by European Union funds and that the only cost incurred by customers was a fee of 1 złoty, and that after one month they could terminate the contract at no additional cost.

The prosecutor’s office explains:

In reality, the contracts were not concluded under any EU project, and their terms involved undertaking an obligation for a period of two to three years, with monthly amounts reaching several hundred złotys. If the contract was terminated before that period elapsed, fees of up to 18,000 złotys were charged.

In this way, more than 2,100 people were victimized in the case of TeleOpieka24, and by signing the contracts they incurred obligations totalling nearly 16 million złotys. Nearly 850 of them made payments to the company exceeding 620,000 złotys.

In the case of GasoEnergia PZE, more than 4,504 people were victimized, and the value of the obligations they incurred amounted to nearly 14.5 million złotys. The victims made payments to the company totalling more than 12 million złotys.

What happens next?

The defendants were charged with fraud involving property of significant value. Tomasz Czułowski:

The indictment covers 14 people, seven of whom were charged with participation in an organized criminal group. Among them, 35-year-old Paweł K. and 30-year-old Maciej P. were charged with leading the group. The charges also concerned misappropriation of funds, entering unreliable invoices into the company’s accounting records, filing false tax returns, reducing tax liabilities for goods and services and corporate income tax, taking steps to conceal the criminal origin of assets, and acting to the detriment of the companies. The defendants are residents of Warsaw, Wrocław and other towns in the Lower Silesian, Silesian and Lubusz voivodeships, aged between 24 and 57.

During the investigation, more than 1,600 people were interviewed. Investigators collected 264 volumes of case files, more than 4,000 contracts and numerous volumes of the financial and accounting records of companies involved in the illegal scheme. Property worth more than 1.2 million złotys was also seized from the suspects.

Three people were placed in temporary detention, while 14 were subject to bail and other preventive measures.

The prosecutor added:

A total of 24 people have now been indicted in the entire investigation. At an earlier stage of the proceedings, indictments were filed against 10 people who played lesser roles in the scheme. They were employees of the companies involved in the fraud: people who persuaded victims by telephone to enter into disadvantageous contracts, couriers who delivered contracts for signing, and people who personally visited victims to persuade them to enter into disadvantageous contracts. Most of them have already been convicted.