Ryszard Czarnecki, a politician with 5 terms as a Member of the European Parliament, is the star of the latest scandal in Poland.
The politician from the conservative PiS party defrauded the European Parliament with 203,000 euros.
He claimed reimbursement for fictitious trips taken, between 2009-2013, with 18 vehicles: 14 cars, two mopeds, one motorcycle, and one tractor.
The reimbursed fuel would have been enough to travel around the Earth five times, writes Europa Liberă, citing an article from the Polish publication Gazeta Wyborcza, entitled "Through Europe on a moped."
When the fraud was exposed, Czarnecki blamed his assistants.
He now faces up to 15 years in prison and cannot rely on the statute of limitations.
Here are some spicy details from the case:
- The list of fictitious trips billed only during the second term in the EP spans 43 pages.
- There are 243 round trips.
- For just three of the most common routes (within Poland, as well as Poland-Brussels and Poland-Strasbourg), the politician was supposed to cover 222,966 km, equivalent to circling the globe five times.
- He invented a residence in Jasło, a city with which he had no actual connection to, but located near the border with Slovakia, hence many kilometers to travel.
- Among the vehicles he allegedly traveled through Europe with is an Iveco Stralis tractor, which was used for business trips to Berlin.
- The statements the MEP submitted for expense reimbursement included randomly chosen or even invented license plate numbers.
The politician denies any wrongdoing and claims he is being "politically persecuted."