Article Summary:
How a Polish entrepreneur in Ubekistan (also known as PRL-bis or III
RP) was
deceived, and destroyed ...
It
is hard to believe
or the last degree of degeneration of public life
/ part IV/
By Rafal Klimuszko
Above the law
On September 23, 2002 (more than 4 months late) Mr. Adam Kierczyński
finally
received a legitimate license to use the facility. Mr. Adam owed the unfair company last installment - 100
thousand zlotys and the company owed Mr. Adam 550 thousand zlotys of
penalties.
The agreement said that for each day of delay the copmany pay 1% of the
contract’s
value. In Polish financial law the interests are deducted from the
final
installment which is indeed commonly accepted in the world. Therefore
Mr. Adam
proposed an amicable settlement (based on mutual amortisation of
debts), which he
considered to be the most favorable for Infra. The unfair company did
not even
want to hear about it and demanded 100 thousand zlotys as if their
penalties
for the delay did not exist. The investor from Chicago forgot that
Poland is a
country full of former communist prominents who are people above the
law.
System’s hit men
The term “hit men” stands for people executing judgements on behalf of
mafia. In
Poland the hit men are prosecutors,
judges and the investigative.
The investor from
Chicago was surprised by the unfair company which issued three
additional
invoices for work that had never been performed. These invoices were
connected
with three false annexes to the agreement, which Mr. Adam had never
signed. When
the Polish investor accused the company of falsifying documents
suddenly it
turned out that he was sued for the forgery of documents too.
Infra made the annexes to the agreement without Mr. Adam’s knowledge
and his siganture.
They had the date of dispatch - November 2002. Officially the
investment ended on
September 23, 2002.
Polish court discontinued the case but the unfair company tried to pull
all the
strings. Mr. Adam as the American citizen was not a Polish taxpayer. Of
course he
payed the tax required for the acquisition of property and the VAT
invoices.
But paying the invoice did not make him a taxpayer. Any foreigner
buying
something in Poland pays the price which includes the tax (VAT). The
person who
is selling the goods or services pays it to the state fund. Can a man
who does
not pursue any gainful activity in Poland be prosecuted because of not
paying
the taxes? Can a man who is not a Polish taxpayer, even does not have
any
income in
At the prosecutors offices and courts
The company Infra issued three invoices inconsistent with the truth,
based on
three false annexes. In addition the company declared that the invoices
do not
require the signature of the other side. The invoice and the due debt
was sold
to the law firm of Gas-Bud, dealing with recovery of debts.
In spring 2003 Adam Kierczyński, a U.S. citizen, learned that he was
convicted
because of failing to pay for the three false invoices sold by Infra to
Gas-Bud.
In addition, he was sentenced in absentia and did not even know that
the
procedure is a process against him!
In cases of payment you can deliver a judgment when the defendant is
absent but
you must tell him about the proceedings. If he does not show on a
trial, that
is his problem. But what happens when the defendant is a U.S. citizen?
Mr. Adam
is also a Polish citizen, the court could send a letter to the Polish
Consulate
asking whether it knows his address in
The Regional Court in Cracow ordered Mr. Adam to pay Gas-Bud over 72
thousands
of these false invoice plus the trial costs - nearly 5 thousand zlotys.
This was already too much for the investor from Chicago! Mr. Adam flew
to
Poland, hired young lawyers and began to
fight for justice. He appealed against a Regional Court in Cracow to
the Court
of Appeal which rescinded the judgment and referred to the Regional
Court to
reconsider. The Regional Court sentenced him again in default mode,
this time
adding higher trial costs -12 thousand zlotys. Mr. Adam appealed again,
and sued
Mr. Bidej and his company which owed him contractual penalties for the
delay.
The American investor who did not
understand postcommunist reality
To sum up, Mr. Adam had to pay
72 thousand zlotys for Gas-Bud, plus 12 thousand of trial costs.
However, this
was not the end. Mr. Adam found out that Infra issued new forged
invoice for another
59 thousand zlotys. The Regional Court in Cracow once again delivered a
judgment when the defendant was absent. Mr. Adam had to pay 59 thousand
zlotys and
another 5 thousand of the trial costs. American investor came back to
The defendant had the
opportunity to present his arguments and facts. The facts were so
compelling
that on November 27, 2003 / Sygn. Act IX
1116-03 GC / the Regional Court in Cracow dismissed all the
allegations.
Mr. Adam won but unfortunately his triunmph ended after a short while.
Law company
Gas-Bud was very influential. In June 2004 the company has obtained a
sentence
from the Court of Appeal in Cracow which again ordered Mr. Adam to pay
Gas-Bud.
This time the amount was 48 thousand zlotys plus 5 thousand of trial
costs. Once
again Mr. Adam was convicted in absentia. The most shocking is how the
Court of
Appeal made from the previous amount 59 thousand zlotys the new amount
48 thousand
zlotys?
Meanwhile Mr. Adam was convicted in absentia because of the falsified
invoices
issued by Infra for the third time. The Regional Court sentenced him in June 2003, again in default / ref. Act IV,
GNC 3348/03/S /.
Mr. Adam Kierczyński naively
believed in justice of the Polish courts so he continued to sue Infra
for
issuing falsified invoices and forging his signature, in addition he
had
evidence.
He persistently
demanded compensation for the delay - 550 thousand zlotys.
Prosecutor Bogdan Świątkowski claimed that three invoices issued by
Infra on
the same thing were nothing wrong. Paying three times for the same work
was officially
recognized as consistent with the Polish law.
The Public
Prosecutor's Office performed its task and defended the nomenlature’s
interests
proclaiming a variety of absurds. In communistic