Kukiz'15 party leader accused of fraud

According to the tip by councillor Piotr Guział, Kukiz fraudulently purchased a home in Warsaw's Mokotów district, paying only PLN 25,000 (EUR 6,000), about 10 percent of the property's value.

According to the Super Express tabloid, Kukiz on Facebook defended himself, saying that the property had been in his family for generations and that he deserved to own it.

But Guział said that Kukiz would have been eligible to a 90-percent rebate only if he and his wife resided at the address, while the musician has often said that he lives near Opole, in southwestern Poland.

Guział also claimed that Kukiz, who formed his grouping ahead of 2015 parliamentary and presidential elections on an anti-establishment and "anti-systemic" platform, privately has succumbed to the corrupt practices he publicly opposes.

Meanwhile, thousands of Varsovians have been affected by a so-called restitution scandal, Guział said.

But Kukiz'15 MP Agnieszka Ścigaj accused the councillor of trying to find dirt on the Kukiz'15 leader after Guział was not allowed to run for a seat in parliament with the grouping.

“Paweł Kukiz has repeatedly explained … that the apartment has been in [his] family for 70 years. He has proved it, so councillor Guział can make whatever claims he wants. There is no unfair play here,” Ścigaj said.

The origins of Warsaw's restitution scandal date back to the seizure of property under the October 1945 Bierut Decree, named after former Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut, which legalised the confiscation of private land in the capital.

Thousands of private buildings were taken from their owners. After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, it has been possible to submit claims for the return of such confiscated property. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP