A pyramid scheme in a bank? Indictment regarding fraud amounting to nearly PLN 388 million

According to Krzysztof Kopania, spokesman for the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Łódź, which prepared an indictment against two former directors of a brokerage house of one of the banks, the fraud is related to the bank's distribution of certificates of four investment funds.

We accuse the defendants of committing fraud to the detriment of 1,308 customers and an amount exceeding PLN 387.6 million, said the prosecutor.

The case concerns one of the threads of the investigation conducted by the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Łódź and the CBA Branch in Poznań. It concerns the years 2012-2015. The defendants decided that the bank would start distributing certificates of 4 investment funds, without testing the product.

In particular, this concerns the failure to examine the veracity of the data contained in the funds' promotional materials, the funds' investment policy and the underlying assets. The defendants also knew about the poor business credibility of the fund managers due to their lack of experience, Kopania said.

Customers misled

According to the prosecutor, the misled purchasers of the certificates were convinced that the bank, as a public trust institution, had reliable knowledge about the funds offered.

Customers were not informed that withdrawal from the investment, during the portfolio building period, depends on further sales of the product, and the funds for the redemption of certificates will come from payments made by investing customers, and not from profits obtained from investments carried out by the fund. This action corresponded to the functioning mechanisms of the so-called financial pyramid - prosecutor Kopania told PAP.

The certificates were distributed through bank branches throughout the country. The money invested in the funds did not bring the expected benefits to the purchasers of the certificates, because in May 2016, banks stopped selling them.

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority ordered the liquidation of all four investment funds

Due to this, which is typical for the structure of a financial pyramid, the funds stopped being supplied with new funds and there was a liquidity breakdown. Due to the difficult situation and the lack of negotiations regarding profitability, in 2017 the Polish Financial Supervision Authority ordered the liquidation of all four investment funds, said the prosecutor.

After the liquidation of the funds in August 2025, investors who purchased certificates through the bank managed to recover only part of the invested funds, suffering losses totaling approximately PLN 136 million.