POLAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Tomasz Konopka, Katarzyna Randzio-Sajkowska, Katarzyna Stradomska-Balcerzyk and Michał Zieliński, Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak
es constitute predicate offences under anti-money laundering provisions; the definition of “virtual cur - rency” has been updated in the Personal and Cor - porate Income Tax Acts and aligned with MiCA (with exclusions for electronic money tokens – EMT). The tax authorities have enhanced their capacity to trace crypto transactions and identify non-compliant tax - payers. Cybercrime and Ransomware Cryptocurrency is frequently used as a payment meth - od in ransomware attacks and other cybercrimes. The competences of the Internal Security Agency, Intelligence Agency, Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, National Revenue Administration, Police and Border Guard have been extended, including access to CASP professional secrecy and powers to identify parties to crypto-asset service agreements. Polish law enforce - ment cooperates with international partners to trace crypto payments and identify perpetrators. Investigative Challenges Tracing cryptocurrency transactions requires spe - cialised technical expertise and international coop - eration, as crypto-assets can be transferred across borders instantaneously. A broad system of informa - tion exchange has been established with the General Inspector of Financial Information (GIIF), European supervisory authorities (ESAs), ESRB, ECB and other EU bodies; public disclosure of information is also provided for in accordance with MiCA requirements. The Polish authorities are investing in blockchain anal - ysis tools and training to enhance their investigative capacity.
the interests of enterprises. A frequent problem that arises in criminal proceedings involving crimes harm - ing enterprises is the lack of internal regulations which clearly lay down the procedures and scope of duties, a result of which means that it is difficult to show the actions or omissions of the guilty party. Bearing in mind that the Whistleblower Protection Act, which entered into force on 25 September 2024 (see 4.4 Whistle-Blower Protection ), changes in approach to passive – and disregard to reported – improprieties within the organisation by the managers, are expect - ed. Lack of a proper reaction may have a negative impact on an assessment of the managers, not just by the entities’ owners. At the same time, proper reac - tion to the notification, and complying with the law’s requirements, should have had greater meaning dur - ing the investigation conducted by the enforcement authorities and assessments of the line of defence provided. 4.2 De Minimis Polish criminal law provides for some exceptions for bearing criminal liability in general. Some of them may be applicable to white-collar crimes. Firstly, whoever acts with the intention of performing an economic experiment that is expected to produce significant cognitive or economic value, and whose expectation of achieving those objectives, purposeful - ness, and method of performing the experiment are well-founded in light of contemporary knowledge, does not commit a crime. Secondly, whoever acts with the purpose of averting an immediate danger to any legally protected interest, if the danger cannot be otherwise avoided, where the sacrificed interest represents a lower value than the interest that is being salvaged, does not commit a crime. Moreover, if the perpetrator of a white-collar crime has voluntarily redressed the full damage, the court may apply extraordinary mitigation of the penalty or even waive its imposition. Fiscal offences are subject to a mechanism of “active repentance”. The perpetrator of a fiscal crime or fiscal
4. Pleas and Defences 4.1 White-Collar Defences
As already mentioned, Polish jurisdiction does not provide for the obligation to self-report or to carry out internal investigations. Nevertheless, many compa - nies implement such programmes, and this is one of the defence arguments for white-collar offences. The compliance programmes are particularly common in companies with foreign capital and in the financial sector. A functioning compliance programme is help - ful in cases of actions contrary to the law that harm
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