Key experience

• Dariusz has over 15 years of experience in advisory services, leading or participating in over 200 projects performed for top executives (management boards, supervisory boards, owners) of large and medium enterprises.
• Over the last 10 years, Dariusz performed 150+ investigations on behalf of multinationals, companies registered with the US and Polish securities commissions (SEC and KPWiG/KNF) and other enterprises from many business sectors.
• His main experience includes corporate investigations of a variety of economic crimes, including fraud, misappropriation of funds, computer crime, corruption and misrepresentation of financial results. Most of the corporate investigation projects involved unethical/criminal behaviour of senior management.
• Led international and multicultural investigation teams in Poland and many other countries (e.g. Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Romania, Moldova, the Czech Republic, all Baltic countries).
• Responsible for projects regarding FCPA issues at Polish subsidiaries of SEC registered companies from pharmaceutical and automotive sectors.
• Performed critical reviews of codes of business conduct, procedures and policies, adequacy of internal control environment, issues of independence, integrity, ethical behaviour.
• Involved in supporting commercial disputes, mediation, Polish and international arbitration.
• Significant acquisition due diligence experience in industries such as financial services, general manufacturing, software & technology, automotive, telecommunications, real estate and private equity houses.

Selected projects

• As a result of a periodical review of financial information, it has come to the attention of the Company that the president of the management board (also an indirect foreign minority shareholder) may be involved in improprieties. He was released from his duties at the Company. Independent investigation performed at the Company determined that serious breaches of local regulations and the Company policies had taken place and Company's assets had been misappropriated. In addition, strong evidence of malpractice and fraud by the CEO and collusion with the external bookkeeping office, was collected.
• The project related to selected key areas of the business in a Polish quoted company, performed under the Act on Trading in Securities at the request of minority shareholders. The special audit included investigation as to whether a significant capital project performed by the company could have led to its bankruptcy, and whether the operation of various management boards over a five year period could have led to substantial losses. The project resulted in a comprehensive report to the shareholders.
• A retail distributor based in the Baltics incurred a loss as a result of termination of a franchise agreement by an international retail group. The project related to an estimation of losses incurred as a result of signing the franchise agreement. The report prepared was used to take interim measures against the retail group and subsequently resulted in awarding the distributor a significant compensation by the Arbitration Court in Warsaw.
• Investigative review commissioned by the President of a large oil company based in the Baltics aimed at identification of evidence of alleged fraudulent activities in contracting high value repair services by the Procurement Director. The work performed identified a number of personal connections between the Director and the contractors working behind fake identities. The evidence gathered was sufficient for immediate disciplinary dismissal of the Director and served as a basis for further legal proceedings.
• Investigative review on expenses relating to a senior executive of an international company in charge of its operations in Central & Eastern Europe. The work was performed in Poland and the Netherlands and revealed that the same expenses were charged to the company's accounts several times in different countries, in addition, many expenses were of private or questionable nature.
• The review performed for one of the largest Polish quoted companies related to imaging and analysing hard drives of four key executives suspected for financial benefiting from the contract with a strategic services supplier. As a result of recovering deleted e-mails, it transpired that two of the suspects were significantly engaged in the creation and the management of the supplier.
• The project was performed as part of a prolonged dispute between a large quoted company and its contractual partner, and related to a review of a large investment process and resulting liabilities; the project involved inter alia a great number of interviews with top management in Poland and France. The investigation revealed that a number of procedural irregularities and departures from best practice took place both pre-transaction and post-transaction, which eventually resulted in significant losses incurred by the company.
• Work performed for a law firm engaged by the Ministry of Finance in the Republic of Poland against a US based private investor to provide expert evidence on loss and damages under the bi-lateral investment treaty (BIT) in a major international arbitration. The investor claimed it had lost and will continue to lose profits as a result of unfavourable decisions made by the Polish government. A critique of the Claimant's expert report was prepared for the law firm to assist them with preparation of the Statement of Defence to be submitted in the Arbitration Court in Paris.

Professional qualifications

CFE – Certified Fraud Examiner
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), USA
FCCA
Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), UK
Master of Arts Degree
Economics, Academy of Economics in Cracow, Poland

Professional organisations

Audit Committee member
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), Poland Chapter, 2008-2009
Vice-President
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), Poland Chapter, 2005-2007
Leader
Risk Management Forum (FMR), 2011-2012

Languages

Polish – native, English – fluent, Russian – basic