Polish Olympic body defends leaked crypto sponsorship deal

The Polish Olympic Committee, known as PKOl, has two problems at once. On 27 August the Justice Minister, Waldemar Żurek, said prosecutors had detained the committee’s president, Radosław Piesiewicz. It is part of a criminal investigation into Zondacrypto, a company where people buy and sell cryptocurrency. Zondacrypto is the committee’s main sponsor. Two days later a court put Piesiewicz in custody. Then, on 1 September, the broadcaster TVN24 and the site Wirtualna Polska published the sponsorship contract itself. PKOl had to answer for what it had agreed to.

Polsat News summed up the reporting. The deal was signed in October 2025. It was worth about 18.49 million zloty after tax, paid in seven parts up to 2028. On top of that came 5 million zloty in the company’s own ZND tokens and a share of a new token called TMPL. In return, Zondacrypto and seven linked companies got the right to use the faces, voices and images of Polish Olympic athletes going back to the London Games in 2012. There was no limit on where they could use them. If an athlete went to court over use they had not agreed to, PKOl would pay the damages.

The part that caused most anger was about data. The contract said the committee had to hand over, every month, information about people who follow the TeamPL page on Facebook. PKOl says it has no access to followers’ personal data. It says it used only the normal advertising settings, and it denies passing on any user information. PRoto.pl reported the statement.

PKOl board members say they never saw the Zondacrypto contract

The case shows how hard it is for an organisation to explain itself under pressure. Board members told reporters they had never seen the document. Krzysztof Wiłkomirski, who heads the judo federation, called the deal dramatic and risky. The mountaineer Piotr Pustelnik said it had been kept from him. Rafał Szlachta told TVN24 that signing it was irresponsible.

Prosecutors say Piesiewicz accepted gifts, including a Patek Philippe watch worth about 40,000 euros from the head of Zondacrypto, Przemysław Kral. They say the gifts were in return for help with the company’s problems with regulators. Piesiewicz denies doing anything wrong and says he bought the watch himself.

The sponsor has its own troubles. Customers of Zondacrypto have had problems taking money out, and there have been reports that its reserves are shrinking. Token bonuses promised to Polish medal winners from the winter Games were late in the spring. Private sponsors then stepped in.

The IOC gave PKOl three ways to remove Piesiewicz

The International Olympic Committee has written to PKOl members. It set out three ways forward. Piesiewicz resigns. Or the committee suspends or removes him under its own rules. Or the International Olympic Committee steps in itself. The last route could end with Poland being suspended and its athletes kept out of the Games. The committee’s standing rests on the reputation of its athletes. Its next statement will probably need to be about how it is run, not about advertising settings.