The Polish prosecutor's office has filed charges against the fifth suspect in the Zondacrypto case

According to CoinDesk, the Polish prosecutor's office has charged Roman Ż., a former business partner of the missing BitBay/Zondacrypto founder Sylwester Suszek, with two counts, including fraud.

Roman Ż. was arrested last Saturday in the Silesia region of Poland, and his lawyer stated that he had assisted in managing the exchange before BitBay was renamed Zonda. Roman Ż. denies the charges and has provided a detailed statement to investigators, with police seizing valuable watches and documents related to Zondacrypto during the search.

The prosecutor's office stated that the arrest was ordered due to concerns that Roman Ż. would flee upon learning of plans to travel to China, with his lawyer describing the trip as a business trip and stating that he held a return ticket for September 13. The court will decide whether to continue detaining Roman Ż. during the investigation.

Previously, BitBay was renamed Zondacrypto in 2021, and the exchange ceased trading in April, following customer withdrawal freezes, with estimated losses of at least 35 million zlotys (approximately 9.4 million USD). The Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit partially suspended the license of the brand entity BB Trade Estonia OÜ. The Polish prosecutor's office has launched an investigation into suspected large-scale fraud and money laundering, receiving over 3,600 complaints as of June.

The case is also related to Suszek's disappearance in March 2022, with the prosecutor's office merging the Zondacrypto investigation with the Suszek missing person case in August.