The Toronowski Files

Before Citronex existed, the young Artur Zarzecki (later Toronowski) was already on the radar of the communist Security Service (SB). According to documents from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), he was the subject of two Operational Verification Cases (SOS) — conducted by the SB to surveil individuals suspected of criminal activity.

SOS "Cytrus" concerned suspicions of smuggling goods and foreign currency. SOS "Mazda" (opened in 1988) dealt with the same subject matter.

The files specifically reveal:

• Toronowski was convicted by the District Court in Zgorzelec to six months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, and a fine of 25,000 zlotys — for "speculative trade in goods of foreign origin."
• He organized a system of buying East German marks at the border, transferring them to West Berlin, exchanging them for West German marks, and using the proceeds to purchase cars, citrus fruits, and sweets for resale in Poland.
• His father — a state enterprise director and member of the PZPR (Polish United Workers' Party) — repeatedly shielded him from criminal consequences, including during an arrest for attempted smuggling to the USSR.
• The passport file at the WUSW Jelenia Góra regional office explicitly stated that by 1988, Toronowski "had committed a series of financial offenses to the detriment of the State Treasury."
• Sham marriage: According to SB files, Toronowski entered into a sham marriage with a citizen of West Berlin in order to obtain travel permission and a consular passport. The SB explicitly stated the marriage was a pretense — entered into after divorcing his first wife solely to enable further smuggling.
• West German police record: According to an SB informant codenamed „Mikołaj", Toronowski took the surname of his second wife (changing from Zarzecki to Toronowski) because under his old name he had a record with the West German police — caught red-handed during a theft in West Germany.

In July 2006, Toronowski ordered the demolition of a commercial pavilion on Konarskiego Street in Zgorzelec, standing on land claimed by Citronex. The problem: people were inside the building — including the nearly 70-year-old Maria Kalata, who ran a shop there.

What happened? The demolition was initiated even though the electrical installation was live and the shop contained flammable chemical products. Zdzisław Kalata, Maria's seriously ill husband, was personally struck by Toronowski. Police present at the scene initially did not intervene — only an intervention from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, prompted by Gazeta Polska editor Tomasz Sakiewicz, halted the operation.

The case was serious enough that Senator Dorota Arciszewska-Mielewczyk submitted an official statement in the Senate of the Republic of Poland, calling for accountability from the authorities involved (police, county administrator, building supervision).

This is the most serious and best-documented case. It concerns the systematic plundering of Cargosped (Łódź) — one of the largest banana importers in Poland — for the benefit of Toronowski's Citronex.

What happened, in simple terms?

Cargosped was a thriving banana importer. Toronowski acted as Citronex's authorized representative and exploited this position to systematically transfer assets from Cargosped to Citronex:

• Inflated prices: Citronex sold bananas to Cargosped at prices significantly above market rates.
• Negative margins: Cargosped was forced to resell those same bananas at a loss.
• Import rights given away for free: Over 3 million kilograms of banana import quotas were transferred free of charge from Cargosped to Citronex.

The total damage was estimated at 15–20 million PLN.

A notable aspect of this case: The District Prosecutor's Office Łódź-Śródmieście refused to press charges against Toronowski. Only the injured co-owner Robert Karwowski forced an indictment through a subsidiary prosecution — a private complaint in cases normally prosecuted by the state, permitted only after the prosecution has twice declined to proceed.

Co-defendant Sławomir W. (CEO of Cargosped) died before the verdict was delivered.

Toronowski's defense attorneys were prominent figures:

• Zbigniew Ćwiąkalski — former Minister of Justice in Donald Tusk's first government
• Krzysztof Budnik (Wrocław) — former politician of the Democratic Union
• Bartosz Tiutunik — well-known attorney (counsel for Sebastian M. in the highway accident case, among others)

Despite this defense, Toronowski was found guilty — and the verdict was upheld by the Sąd Apelacyjny w Łodzi (Court of Appeal in Łódź) in October 2023.

In the global Panama Papers leak (2016) — the largest data leak from the law firm Mossack Fonseca in history — Toronowski's name also appeared.

What is this about? The Toronowski family owned a motor yacht named "Citronex," registered under a Panamanian flag. The yacht was managed by the company Leemouth Trading, registered directly through the Mossack Fonseca law firm.

Authorized representatives of Leemouth Trading were both Artur Toronowski and his son Rafał Zarzecki. The yacht was purchased in 2008 for 460,000 euros. In 2011, it was sold within the family for just 61,000 US dollars — the economic rationale for this transaction has never been publicly explained.

Note: Registration in Panama is not illegal in itself. It may have tax or regulatory justifications. However, the Panama Papers became a worldwide warning signal regarding tax avoidance structures.

In September 2015, Super Express revealed that Artur Toronowski was formally registered as a "social assistant" to then-member of parliament Bożena Sławiak of Civic Platform (PO). An unusual constellation: a billionaire with an estimated family fortune of 900 million PLN serving as an adviser to an MP.

Toronowski claimed he had only advised on matters related to the construction of the A2 motorway. The MP responded reluctantly to journalists' questions. Following the publication in Super Express, she formally ended the collaboration.

Citronex's greenhouses in Bogatynia (10 ha) and Siechnice near Wrocław (43 ha) became a source of massive light pollution. The illumination of tomato crops with lamps of enormous power generated a glow visible from more than 80 kilometres away — comparable in intensity to the light of a city of one hundred thousand inhabitants.

What happened?

• Czech protests (2016): Residents of the Czech borderland (the area around Liberec) protested en masse against the glow from the Bogatynia greenhouses. The case reached the Czech Prime Minister and the Associated Press news agency. An intervention by the European Parliament was considered.
• German protests: Sächsische Zeitung (Dresden) reported on the light pollution from the greenhouses at the border.
• Siechnice: The glow over the 43-hectare plantation is visible from across Wrocław and the surrounding area. Astronomers from the Astronomical Institute of the University of Wrocław conducted measurements — the sky above Siechnice was 380 times brighter at night than the natural level. Mayor Milan Ušák attempted to force Citronex to undergo an environmental review, but the company appealed and won — the Self-Government Appeals Board ruled that there was no legal basis for such an order.
• Parliamentary interpellation: MP Małgorzata Tracz (Greens) filed a parliamentary interpellation concerning the light pollution from the Siechnice greenhouses.
• Under international pressure, Citronex reduced the duration of its lighting by 40% and installed special curtains at a cost of 2 million dollars.

Citronex built over plot no. 5/18 in Zgorzelec, designated in the Local Spatial Development Plan as a public road (14KD D). The problem: the plot was owned by the Gmina Miejska Zgorzelec (Zgorzelec Municipality) — Citronex treated it as its own "in good faith", because the Gmina was not disclosed in the land register at the time the rights were acquired in 2005.

Citronex subsequently filed a claim for reimbursement of the expenditure on the construction — over 700,000 PLN from the municipal budget. The Gmina did not contest the claim itself but challenged its amount. The case went to mediation.

A local comment from the zgorzelec.info portal aptly summed it up: „Janusz sukcesu sądził, że Citronex da mu ją za darmo... Niestety teraz trzeba będzie za nią zapłacić z gminnego budżetu."