The mayor of the city of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk was detained by the Polish Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA). According to various media reports the detention was ordered in connection to the corruption scandal at one of Warsaw’s private universities that was allegedly complicit in producing fake graduate diplomas. 

The wave of arrests in the so-called Collegium Humanum scandal comes after the university’s head Paweł Cz. decided to cooperate with the prosecutors working on the case of selling diplomas that could qualify the graduates to f.e. take responsible positions in state-owned companies or others in the public sector that required professional training. 

According to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, the scale of the scandal includes more than one million zlotys in bribes and even thousands of fake diplomas. 

Wrocław’s mayor Jacek Sutryk is now being interrogated in the prosecutor’s office in Katowice. 

Sutryk was one of many who held an MBA degree from this university. The case came to light during the last local government election campaign. When asked about his MBA diploma S. said he paid for it with his own money. 

“The problem is the documents showed that, although the contract with Paul Cz.’s university was signed on 10 October 2019, the bank transfer was made six months later, on 22 April 2020. The postgraduate MBA course lasted two semesters. S. received his graduation certificate on 2 June 2020,” Rzeczpospolita informs. 

Thanks to the MBA diploma Jacek Sutryk was entitled to sit on supervisory boards of public companies in Poland. In 2020 he became a member of three supervising boards connected to the local government in Dolnośląskie province. Now the prosecutors will investigate other ties to Jacek S. and Wrocław’s public institutions to the private university. 

The prosecutor’s office will inform the public about the exact allegations for Sutryk after the conclusion of the hearing in Katowice. 

Photo:@Jan34733995

Source: Rzeczpospolita

Tomasz Modrzejewski