The Poland-based Open Dialogue Foundation, headed by Ukrainian activist Lyudmyla Kozlovska, has reportedly called for the conservative government in Warsaw to be overthrown.
“The Internal Security Agency is conducting an investigation into the activities of the Open Dialogue Foundation,” Stanisław Żaryn, a spokesman for Poland's security services chief, said.
The investigation also focuses on "the Silk Road Biuro Analiz i Informacji company run by Bartosz Kramek" and follows a fiscal inspection at the Open Dialogue Foundation, according to Żaryn.
The probe, which also involves prosecutors, was started on the basis of a notification by the head of the National Revenue Administration, Żaryn said.
An audit conducted at the Open Dialogue Foundation by the National Revenue Administration has found that the official data of the foundation’s donors “do not correspond to reality,” Żaryn said in a statement.
He added: “According to the foundation's documents, most of the funds channelled to it came from people who were members of the foundation's authorities or from individuals and businesses linked to them.”
The audit showed, however, that the funds transferred to the foundation “may have come from other sources,” according to Żaryn.
Findings by the National Revenue Administration “indicate that the Silk Road company owned by Bartosz Kramek, which pays funds into the Open Dialogue Foundation, received payments from businesses registered in virtual offices in Britain,” Żaryn said.
He added that such transfers totalled "USD 1.27 million and EUR 64,000.”
Businesses transferring the funds were owned by companies registered in offshore tax havens such as Seychelles, Belize and Panama, according to Żaryn.
These included companies listed in the context of the Panama Papers financial scandal, he said.
The National Revenue Administration believes that the nature of the cash transfers indicates that the transferred funds destined for the foundation “may have been criminal in origin,” Żaryn also said.
The findings of the National Revenue Administration “justify the need to open an investigation,” Żaryn said, adding that the case also necessitated “a number of activities” to be carried out by “institutions responsible for counteracting money laundering.”
According to Poland’s wpolityce.pl website, the Open Dialogue Foundation “drew up a 16-point plan to overthrow the Polish government” in the summer of last year.
(gs/pk)