Ex-European lawmaker and wife charged with influence peddling and corruption in Poland

WARSAW, Poland (AP) —

Prosecutors in southern Poland have charged a former European Parliament lawmaker and his wife with corruption and influence peddling as part of a larger probe into irregularities in the operations of a private university in Warsaw.

Ryszard Czarnecki is a prominent member of Law and Justice, Poland’s former ruling conservative party. Prime Minister Donald Tusk's current government is seeking to bring to account its predecessor's alleged mismanagement and other shortcomings.

Prosecutor Tomasz Tadla in Katowice said late Thursday that Czarnecki and his wife obtained some 92,000 zlotys ($23,000) from Collegium Humanum in return for promises of helping the university develop branches abroad, primarily in Uzbekistan, using Czarnecki’s political connections. The money transfers were camouflaged as remuneration for Czarnecki's wife, identified only as Emilia H., for fictitious work at the university.

The pair, who were detained on Wednesday, denied any wrongdoing, Tadla said. They have been released on bail.

Multiple parliamentary investigative committees and probes have been launched to look into the previous government's alleged abuse of power, misuse of public funds and corruption. One of them is into Collegium Humanum, which allegedly issued fake MBA degree diplomas in return for bribes totaling some of 630,000 zlotys ($162,000.) Almost 50 suspects have been identified so far in the probe and some of them, including the university's rector, have been charged.

If convicted, Czarnecki and his wife could face up to 10 years in prison.

Czarnecki was European lawmaker from 2004 to 2019 and deputy speaker of the European Parliament, but he lost that job in 2018 when he was charged with defrauding hundreds of thousands of euros in travel cost reimbursements.