Zondacrypto criminal scheme: how murderers and the Tambov organized crime group emptied the exchange’s accounts and “vanished” with a billion

05 мая 2026 г.

Petr Pogibin

According to information from Gazeta Wyborcza, the Polish cryptocurrency exchange Zondacrypto (formerly known as BitBay), whose users have been complaining since April about an inability to withdraw funds, was involved in money laundering for the Tambov organized crime group.

As reported by the media, both the official and unofficial co-owners of the exchange are people with unusual backgrounds. One was convicted of murder. Another mysteriously disappeared in 2022, along with access to wallets containing 4,500 bitcoins. And a third has just gone missing.

The most successful Polish crypto exchange was founded in 2014 by a 27-year-old Pole, Sylwester Suszek, together with his father Jerzy Suszek and three friends. He bought a small company, Radhovest, and renamed it BitBay. The business took off, and at its peak its monthly turnover exceeded 1 billion zlotys (around 300 million USD). In 2018, the ownership structure changed: Marek Knisz, Mateusz Bajer, Jerzy Suszek, and Jacek Rogoż exited the company, while Dubai-based entities ARIAL INVESTMENT IN COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISES LLC, SkyBay, and CentralBay appeared instead. Suszek’s friends were not ordinary people.

One of them, Marek Knisz, served 8 years in prison for complicity in the murder of a Polish businessman in the 1990s. The second, Mateusz Bajer, is related to a certain Roman Z., a hotel owner. It was in his hotel that Knisz stayed after being released from prison. Roman also has a long criminal record—he served time for robbery, pimping, and counterfeiting. It is believed that Roman was the real beneficiary of shares registered in Bajer’s name. These individuals, through their criminal networks, may have brought Tambov OCG money into BitBay when the exchange began experiencing financial problems in 2018.

In 2018, the exchange received a warning from the Polish financial regulator for illegally providing payment services. The company urgently needed liquidity. According to Polish officials, these funds were obtained from certain Russians. After that, the company moved its operational base to Estonia, rebranded, and became Zondacrypto. Soon after, founder Sylwester Suszek stepped down as CEO, and his position was taken by the head of the legal department, Polish lawyer Przemysław Kral. Over time, other assets belonging to Suszek in various countries were also gradually transferred to Kral.

After the business was transferred to Kral, Sylwester Jan Suszek disappeared without a trace. On March 10, 2022, he left for a meeting with Marian Wszolek; his car was later found parked near the building. Crypto exchange users are most concerned about his disappearance, as along with Suszek, access codes to the company’s crypto wallet also vanished—wallets holding more than 1 billion zlotys in bitcoin (4,500 BTC).

Marian Wszolek, who met with Suszek, was another early BitBay investor. There were rumors that he provided the initial capital to launch the exchange. Wszolek was also involved in an economic investigation: authorities believed that his company Deltaoils Sp. z o.o. handled unaccounted fuel volumes that may have originated from Russia. Neither Deltaoils nor its related companies officially imported fuel, but Polish police had a list of offshore oil traders through which petroleum products were allegedly transported from Russia to Wszolek’s network. Former Monaco intelligence chief Robert Eringer had previously also spoken about the connection between a St. Petersburg OCG and illegal oil exports and money laundering through offshore oil structures.

It now appears that Przemysław Kral may be following in Sylwester Suszek’s footsteps. Amid the scandal over withdrawal issues, he stopped responding to employees in the corporate messenger. He previously left Poland for Monaco—and it was also revealed that Kral holds an Israeli passport. It is possible that the associates are already celebrating a successful operation somewhere on a new yacht.