Polish prosecutors have charged Roman Ż., a former business partner of missing BitBay founder Sylwester Suszek, with fraud and an undisclosed offense. The arrest is the fifth in an expanding investigation into the collapse of Zondacrypto, which left users facing $94 million in losses. The fraud probe has been merged with the inquiry into Suszek's 2022 disappearance, as authorities examine the exchange's early operations to uncover what happened to its founder.
Roman Ż. fraud charges
- ▪Prosecutors ordered the arrest of Roman Ż. because they feared he would flee to China, while his lawyer Błażej Gazda stated the trip was for business with a return ticket for September 13, 2026.
- ▪Roman Ż. denied the fraud allegations and provided Polish investigators with an extensive statement regarding his role in managing BitBay before it rebranded.
- ▪In a separate 2019 case, Polish prosecutors accused Roman Ż. of leading an organized criminal group and laundering 28 million zlotys through BitBay accounts.
- ▪Polish prosecutors charged Roman Ż., a former business partner of missing BitBay founder Sylwester Suszek, with fraud and a second undisclosed offense on September 7, 2026.
- ▪Roman Ż. was arrested on September 5, 2026, in Poland's Silesia region by Poland's Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime and the Katowice regional police.
Zondacrypto customer losses
- ▪The collapse of the Zondacrypto exchange left customers facing estimated losses of at least 350 million zlotys, equivalent to approximately $94 million.
- ▪Zondacrypto stopped trading in April 2026 and its website went offline on April 23, 2026, following customer reports of frozen or delayed withdrawals starting in late February 2026.
- ▪By June 2026, Polish prosecutors had received more than 3,600 complaints from Zondacrypto customers who reported they were unable to recover their assets.
Sylwester Suszek disappearance investigation
- ▪Sylwester Suszek disappeared on March 10, 2022, after traveling to a meeting in Czeladź, Poland, and his family reportedly received messages demanding a Bitcoin ransom.
- ▪Polish prosecutors merged the Zondacrypto fraud investigation with the inquiry into the March 10, 2022, disappearance of BitBay founder Sylwester Suszek in August 2026.
Frozen accounts asset seizures
- ▪During the arrest of Roman Ż., Polish police officers seized valuable watches and documents connected to Zondacrypto's business operations.
- ▪Polish authorities have frozen 4 million euros in a bank account and secured more than 100 million zlotys in assets to potentially support Zondacrypto customer compensation claims.
BitBay regulatory license suspension
- ▪Estonia's Financial Intelligence Unit suspended and subsequently revoked the operating license of BB Trade Estonia OÜ, the legal entity behind Zondacrypto, on June 29, 2026.
- ▪Zondacrypto was originally founded as BitBay in 2014 and had accumulated more than 1 million registered users by the time of its rebranding in 2021.
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