Polish ex-financial regulator held on corruption suspicion

Poland's anti-corruption officers on Tuesday detained the former head of a financial regulatory body who resigned recently after a media report he sought a bribe.

Marek Chrzanowski was brought from his Warsaw home to Katowice, in the south, for questioning by prosecutors.

The Central Anti-Corruption Office said he will face corruption charges.

The spokesman for the minister in charge of Poland's state security services, Stanislaw Zaryn, said the charges were based on a secret recording that the head of a troubled bank made of his meeting with Chrzanowski, on other documents and evidence gathered and on searches of his home and office.

Chrzanowski was appointed in 2016 by the current ruling party to be the director of the Financial Supervision Authority that ensures proper banking practices. He was reportedly recommended for the post by the head of the National Bank of Poland, Adam Glapinski, who was appointed by the ruling party.

Chrzanowski resigned this month after the Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that in March he had sought a multimillion-dollar bribe from the controlling shareholder of Getin Noble Bank, Leszek Czarnecki.

Chrzanowski insists he is innocent.

The anti-corruption office was started by the ruling Law and Justice party in 2006 when it was previously in power and made fighting corruption a key policy goal.