The “Yediot Ahronot” daily newspaper reports that a Warsaw court sentenced on Friday businessman Bogoslav Bagshik to nine years imprisonment on charges of fraud against the local banking system and bribery of bank officials.
Bagshik and his partner Andrei Gonshiurovsky were called the “Polish group”. They landed in Israel in mid-1991 with suitcases full of dollars, the fruits of their labors for their Polish company, Art-B. Sometime after establishing themselves in Israel, they obtained citizenship and acquired 50% of Paz for $85 million.
At the same time, the Polish authorities deepened their inquiries against them, seized their assets and revealed that the two importers of televisions and coffee from Germany, had made profits of hundreds of millions of dollars by exploiting loopholes in the Polish banking system during the market reforms of 1989-90.
Bagshik was arrested at the Zurich airport in June 1994, on an international warrant issued by Poland to Interpol. His trial ended on Friday, but id the time already served by the former musician is taken into account – 4.5 years in Poland and Switzerland – he will have less than two months left to serve.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 23 October 2000