THE Polish National Prosecutor’s Office announced today that it has started the conducting research for oil giant Orlen, which is controlled by the state, and concerns the manager of a Swiss subsidiary of the group, who is suspected of connections with the Islamist movement Hezbollah of Lebanon.

The announcement comes the day after publications in the Polish press accuse Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS) official Samer A. of contacts with Hezbollah, which he denies.

According to the journalists, Samer A., ​​a Polish citizen of Lebanese origin, became the president of OTS, which was founded in 2022, despite the negative opinion of the group’s security services, at the request of the former president of Orlen, Daniel Obitek.

On Monday, Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke of “ex-Orlen official’s possible ties to Hezbollah” in his message on the X platform.

According to an Orlen investigation released last week, OTS lost nearly 1.5 billion zlotys (€350 million) by ordering oil, mostly from Venezuela, that was never delivered.

This amount has been spent “no control”National Prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk told the press.

Samer A. was already suspected of trading in Iranian oil that had been subject to US sanctions.

The Orlen group is accused in Poland of serving the previous populist nationalist government to fund political schemes and many expensive positions.

The places of residence of Samer A. and Daniel Obaitek remain “currently unknown”, but the name of the latter is mentioned among the possible candidates of the nationalist PiS party in the upcoming European elections.

The prosecutor also announced two other “major legal proceedings” underway involving Orlen, the Polish champion in oil production, transportation, refining, timing and retailing as well as in the electricity and gas sectors .

One of these investigations relates to the merger of Orlen with its domestic rival Lotos, accompanied by the sale of a stake in Saudi Aramco, with a loss estimated by Warsaw at four billion zlotys (930 million euros).

On this occasion, the Orlen group also sold a share of its shares to the Hungarian MOL, which is suspected of having ties to Moscow.

The third investigation concerns suspicions of fuel underpricing last fall, “which could be linked to the parliamentary elections” on August 15, with a loss for Orlen estimated at one billion zlotys.

The investigation into this case could go back “as far as the prime minister” at the time of the events, Mateusz Morawiecki, according to Korneluk.

The Polish state owns 49.9% of Orlen group shares and the pension funds Nationale-Nederlanden and Allianz respectively 5.76% and 4.96%, the rest is listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.