Interpol issues Red Notice for Art-B co-founder Bogusław Bagsik over fraud case

Interpol has published a Red Notice for Bogusław Bagsik, the co-founder of the Art-B company, requesting international law enforcement agencies to locate and provisionally arrest him for potential extradition. The notice follows an active arrest warrant issued in 2023 by police in Piaseczno, Poland, regarding allegations of fraud and money laundering. An Interpol Red Notice serves as a request to foreign police authorities rather than an international arrest warrant, leaving detention decisions to individual jurisdictions under national laws.

The current proceedings follow a non-final court ruling sentencing Bagsik to six years in prison for running a financial pyramid. Investigators and the court found that the entity he was associated with after leaving prison defrauded approximately 170 investors, resulting in millions of zlotys in financial losses.

Bagsik previously founded Art-B with Andrzej Gąsiorowski in Cieszyn in 1989. In 1991, authorities uncovered a scheme known as the oscillator mechanism, in which the company accrued interest multiple times on the same funds transferred between banks before previous transactions were settled. Losses were estimated at approximately 3 trillion old zlotys (300 million zlotys after redenomination). Both founders fled to Israel before their planned detention, with public reports stating they were alerted by Maciej Zalewski, an official in the presidential chancellery of Lech Wałęsa and a Porozumienie Centrum politician. Bagsik was extradited to Poland in 1996, and in 2000 a court sentenced him to nine years in prison, a 5,000 zloty fine, and a five-year corporate ban. He was released early in 2004, while the charges against Gąsiorowski expired under the statute of limitations in 2014.