Poland’s Olympic body on defensive as crypto sponsor deal leaks after president’s arrest

The Polish Olympic Committee (PKOl) is fighting on two fronts. On August 27, Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek announced that prosecutors had detained the committee’s president, Radosław Piesiewicz, as part of a criminal investigation into the cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto, the body’s general sponsor. A court placed him in custody two days later. Then, on September 1, broadcaster TVN24 and portal Wirtualna Polska published the sponsorship contract itself, forcing PKOl into a defensive statement about what it had signed away.

According to the reporting, summarized by Polsat News, the deal signed in October 2025 was worth about 18.49 million zloty net, paid in seven installments through 2028, plus 5 million zloty in the exchange’s ZND tokens and a share of a new TMPL token. In return Zondacrypto and seven affiliated companies received the right to use the faces, voices and images of Polish Olympians going back to London 2012, with no territorial limits. If an athlete sued over unauthorized use, PKOl would cover the damages.

The most contentious clause concerned data. The contract obliged the committee to pass on, every month, information about people following the TeamPL Facebook profile. PKOl’s statement, reported by PRoto.pl, insists it has no access to followers’ personal data and used only standard advertising targeting tools, rejecting suggestions that it handed over user information.

Why it matters

The affair has become a case study in institutional communications failing under pressure. Board members told reporters they never saw the document. Judo federation head Krzysztof Wiłkomirski called it dramatic and risky, mountaineer Piotr Pustelnik said it had been kept from him, and Rafał Szlachta, speaking on TVN24, described signing it as irresponsible. Prosecutors allege Piesiewicz accepted benefits, including a Patek Philippe watch worth about 40,000 euros from Zondacrypto chief Przemysław Kral, in exchange for help with the exchange’s regulatory troubles. He denies wrongdoing and says he bought the watch himself.

The sponsor is itself in trouble. Zondacrypto has faced withdrawal problems and reports of collapsing reserves, and token bonuses promised to Polish medalists from the winter Games were delayed in the spring before private sponsors stepped in.

What’s next

The International Olympic Committee has written to PKOl members laying out three routes: Piesiewicz resigns, the committee suspends or removes him under its own statutes, or the IOC intervenes, a scenario that could end with Poland’s suspension and its athletes barred from the Games. For an organization whose entire value rests on the reputation of its athletes, the next statement will need to be about governance, not targeting settings.