LFO scandal

The Laboratory for Fractionation of Plasma Scandal (LFO) - popular description of many events connected to the investigation which started in 1995. This was an investigation of an investment to build a Laboratory for Franctionation of Plasma in Mielc, Poland. The Laboratory was never built. In 2001 the Polish Prosecutor’s Office from the city of Tarnobrzeg started criminal investigation in the case of extortion of money to obtain credit to build the Laboratory.

INVESTMENT

The investment was supposed to create a facility to fractionation blood plasma and production of different blood related medical products. The investment was meant to be lucrative. It appeared also that it would materialize WHO order to become independent in production of blood related products. LFO was chosen as the company which would build such a manufacturing plant. The investment proposal received 34 million USD in credit mainly from banks such a Kredyt Bank. In 1998 LFO signed a licensing agreement with an Australian company CSL. In 1999 the bank stopped giving credit to the investment and in 2000 CSL withdrew from the project. In 2000 LFO signed a new licensing agreement with Octapharma. In 2001 the bank finally withdrew from credit agreement and the Polish prosecutor’s office started to investigate the project.

LFO’s investors were the following:

• Zygmunt Nizioł (company by the name of Nedepol)
• David Minotte i Robert Lewis
• Włodzimierz Wapiński
• Bjorn Hedberg

MAIN ASPECTS OF THE LFO SCANDAL

Polish media inquired about the following issues, which indicated abuses during construction of the factory:

• Charges against Zygmunt Niziol for extortion of 21 million USD in credit and for larceny of 8 million USD and 1 mln Euro.
• The need to return 61 million Polish zlotys (PLN) by LFO to banks, which amount was guaranteed by the Polish Ministry of Finance in 2006, despite the fact that a year earlier the National Audit Authority (NIK) established that credit agreement was not valid, because LFO did not complete all formalities in front of the bank.
• The pressure of officers linked to president Kwasniewski to continue the LFO project despite lack of merit.
• The disappearance of documents regarding the project at the Ministry of Health.

CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION

In July 2006 president Kwasniewski was questioned. On June 16 2007 Zygmont Niziol, the main investor at LFO, was extradited from the United Kingdom to Poland. June 2008 Halina Wasilewska-Trenkner was charged. April 2009 charges against minister Wieslaw Kaczmarek for giving an incorrect opinion for the Ministry of Treasury to act as a LFO guarantor were dismissed as not a determining factor in the Ministry of Treasury decision. Subsequently the district court of Warsaw repealed the verdict taking into consideration the demand by the Prosecoutor’s office of Tarnobrzeg to transfer the case to the High Court. February 2010 a separate lawsuit against Zygmunt Niziol and Wlodzimierz Wapinski was due to start.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Leszek Misiak, "Walka o osocze", 2007, ISBN 978-83-923472-1-7, wyd. Słowo Niezależne sp. z o.o.

EXTERNAL LINKS

• "Czerwone osocze", Nasz Dziennik, 19/03/2006
• "Skok na bank krwi", Wprost, 11/2006
• Instytut Hematologii i Transfuzjologii, "Samowystarczalność Polski w zakresie zaopatrzenia w bezpieczną krew, jej składniki i produkty krwiopochodne na rok 2004" (Ministerstwo Zdrowia)