Two Missing Executives, a Locked $355M Bitcoin Vault, and the Syndicate Accused of Looting a Polish Crypto Empire

Two executives are missing. A crypto exchange says 4,500 BTC is trapped behind a lock that only one of them could open. A gas station CCTV hard drive disappeared, while nearly €8 million was allegedly sent to buy property in France.

At a trading price of about $78,856, the 4,500 BTC would be worth approximately $355 million.

On Saturday, police officers in Silesia seized a cache of corporate documents and took Roman Ż. into custody. A Katowice court later approved his pretrial detention.

Roman Ż. was charged with membership in an organized criminal group and with misappropriating clients’ funds through computer fraud. Investigators say the group altered, deleted and added exchange data and interfered with the way the platform processed and transmitted it. The alleged loss was at least 7.8 million złoty, or about $2 million. He faces up to 10 years in prison, denies the charges and has given a statement.

The arrest is the latest movement in the Zondacrypto fraud Katowice investigation.

Long before its database was allegedly manipulated from within, Zondacrypto began in Katowice as BitBay in 2014. Founded by Sylwester Suszek, it grew into one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Central and Eastern Europe. At its peak, the platform claimed 1.3 million clients, most of them Polish, and sponsored international sports organizations including Juventus FC and the Giro d’Italia.

One financial mystery was already sitting at the center of the exchange: 4,500 BTC that could not be moved.

For six years, prosecutors say, an organized criminal group operated with the aim of taking control of Suszek’s assets. In 2020, BitBay shifted its registration to Estonia under the parent company BB Trade Estonia and adopted the Zondacrypto name.

Suszek vanished in March 2022 after a business meeting in Czeladź, near Katowice. His car was found abandoned. Polish media and investigative reports have widely treated the disappearance as a suspected kidnapping. The Sylwester Suszek kidnapping investigation later became entangled with the alleged effort to seize the exchange and its assets.

Nearly €8 million left the operator’s account last October to buy property in France. A €2.9 million loan was recorded as repaid even though it had not been. Two properties in Katowice, valued at 700,000 and 800,000 złoty, were allegedly transferred without payment. Another 7.5 million złoty was allegedly laundered through fictitious property purchases, alongside a further count involving 1.7 million złoty. The French property transaction sits inside the broader allegation that the group tried to take over Suszek’s assets.

On September 4, three other central figures—Anna P., Jaromira W. and Rafał Z.—were ordered held in three-month pretrial detention.

A hard drive was removed from a gas station’s CCTV recorder.

Prosecutors allege Anna P. took it to obstruct proceedings into Suszek’s deprivation of liberty and incited false testimony. The suspected kidnapping and the alleged financial looting occupy the same investigation.

Przemysław Kral, the lawyer who became chief executive after Suszek disappeared, told customers that the exchange held 4,500 BTC and that only Suszek could unlock it. Kral has not been seen since April 16. His disappearance is now part of the Przemysław Kral disappearance case surrounding the failed exchange.

The exchange froze withdrawals and went dark in April. Estonian financial authorities revoked BB Trade Estonia’s license on June 29. The BB Trade Estonia license revoked decision left customers facing an exchange that could no longer operate legally in the country where it had been registered.

All three suspects detained on September 4 denied the charges. The Katowice regional prosecutor’s office opened the case in April into large-scale fraud and money laundering and has received several thousand complaints.