Sylwester Suszek, the founder and former CEO of Polish cryptocurrency exchange BitBay (currently Zonda), has reportedly gone missing. According to the local press, citing police from Katowice, Poland, he left his home on Thursday for a business meeting and drove off in an unknown direction, but he has not reached out to his family since then.
He was wearing black sports shoes with orange elements, an olive-black jacket with a yellow stripe, blue jeans and a black sweatshirt at the time of his disappearance.
The executive is known for having founded a company where journalists from local media found that some shareholders had criminal records, with convictions for pimping and VAT fraud. Additionally, it is worth mentioning that in 2018 the above-mentioned Bitcoin (BTC) exchange was listed on the list of warnings issued by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. This involved financial activities that were not permitted.
“BitBay, also known as the Bitcoin mine, was founded by three men from Piekary Śląskie. For Sylwester Suszek, the initial capital was to be provided by his father, then he transferred the shares in the company to his son. However, TVN reporters have found information indicating that Marek K. is also among BitBay’s shareholders, with a criminal past,” said a local media outlet.
Alleged Links to Criminals
It was found in the investigations that the crypto exchange could have links to the criminal world via its shareholders, specifically one of them that is allegedly associated with a murder committed in 1995 by a local gang. The journalistic piece was attempted multiple times to be taken down, but it failed.
“During the writing of the report, its authors were to receive a proposal to accept a bribe for abandoning the topic. First, there was a proposal of 100,000. PLN, later a million. The reporters passed this information on to the prosecutor's office in Wrocław and the Central Investigation Bureau. They were also to meet with those who offered to pay them a bribe under the supervision of law enforcement agencies. Ultimately, however, the National Prosecutor's Office did not consent to the meeting,” the local media outlet commented.
