POLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Jaroslaw Kruk and Joanna Bogdanska, KW Kruk and Partners Law Firm
KW Kruk and Partners Law Firm 14 bl. Ladyslawa z Gielniowa Street 02-066 Warsaw Poland
Tel: +48 222 464 600 Fax: +48 222 464 699 Email: Office@legalkw.pl Web: www.legalkw.pl
Emerging Trends in Fraud, Money Laundering and Asset Recovery in Poland As a jurisdiction positioned at the intersection of EU regulatory standards and regional financial flows, Poland has seen significant developments in its approach to economic crime, anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement and asset recov - ery. Evolving modus operandi in fraud – from phishing to deepfake scams Recent trends indicate a marked increase in the complexity and sophistication of fraud schemes in Poland. There is a visible shift from tradition - al phishing attacks to more structured social engineering campaigns, often leveraging AI- generated deepfakes, voice impersonation and real-time behavioural profiling to exploit internal weaknesses in financial institutions. These developments call for recalibrated inter - nal controls, particularly in KYC onboarding, payment verification protocols and insider risk management. AML supervision and FATF alignment – substance over formalism Poland’s AML regime has undergone significant technical alignment with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations, particu -
larly through the 2023 National Risk Assessment and sector-specific supervisory guidance. How - ever, the practical enforcement of risk-based obligations remains uneven. Regulators are now expected to move away from a formalistic compliance-check approach to a more substantive evaluation of the effective - ness of AML/CFT programmes, with enhanced scrutiny of beneficial ownership transparency, transaction monitoring calibration and reporting culture within obliged entities. Digital asset laundering – regulatory and investigative bottlenecks Cryptocurrency-driven laundering schemes are on the rise in Poland, especially those involving obfuscation techniques such as mixers, chain- hopping or DeFi platforms. Law enforcement units have increased collaboration with block - chain analytics providers, but gaps remain in capacity-building, admissibility of blockchain- derived evidence, and the swift freezing of digital wallets. From a legal perspective, one of the challenges is the lack of harmonised jurisprudence con - cerning the legal qualification of digital assets and the extraterritorial reach of investigative measures targeting decentralised exchanges.
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