- The prosecution has accused Cezary Kucharski of blackmailing Bayern Munich footballer Robert Lewandowski and disclosing a professional secret. However, he threatens up to 3 years in prison
- Recordings of conversations between Lewandowski and Kucharski are key evidence for the prosecution in the case
- The former agent of “Lewy” does not admit the alleged acts and claims to have led negotiations aimed at ending the cooperation and accounting for his contribution to RL Management, that is to say the company which marketed the image of the footballer
- Kucharski’s defenders believe that “the recordings do not meet the requirement of authenticity” and support the commissioned phonoscopic expertise
- The prosecution has commissioned experts to examine the recordings and the media on which the conversations were recorded
- “Experts in the field of informatics and phonoscopy in the aforementioned notices did not reveal any trace of manipulation of the recordings of the subject’s conversations, and they did not in any way question the materials submitted for the search” – point out the investigators
- More important information can be found on the Onet homepage
Business Insider Polska discovered the indictment, which the Warsaw Regional Prosecutor’s Office returned to court. Investigators accuse Cezary Kucharski (he agreed to release the data and release the image) that between September 2019 and September 2020 he repeatedly threatened Robert Lewandowski to spread information about alleged tax irregularities linked to the Bayern Munich player’s company – RL management. According to investigators, the agent was claiming 20 million euros for his silence. The second allegation concerns Kucharski’s disclosure of copies of advertising contracts, incl. with Coca Cola or Nike, football matches with Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich and the tax documents of Lewandowski and his wife Anna.
The former manager of a Bayern footballer faces 3 years in prison. He does not recognize the alleged acts.
Key evidence
The most important evidence in the case are two meetings with Kucharski recorded by Lewandowski. The first took place in September 2019 at the Kempinski Hotel in Munich, the second took place in January 2020 at the Baczewskich Restaurant in Warsaw. Plenipotentiary of “Lewy” prof. Tomasz Siemiątkowski attached them to the alleged crime notification, which became the basis for opening the investigation.
It was during these talks – according to prosecutors – that Kucharski said he wanted 20 million euros from Lewandowski. Why?
“In two sentences? For the fact that I will hide for the rest of my life that you and your wife are tax evaders” – said the former agent of the football player (literal quote).
Defenders of Lewandowski’s former agent have long questioned the authenticity of the tapes and based their arguments on the opinion ordered from a forensic expert.
“Unfortunately, to this day we do not know what the actual words were and in what context were spoken in these conversations, as we only know them from the recordings presented by Robert Lewandowski’s camp. As we have pointed out Many times, these recordings do not meet the requirement of authenticity, which is confirmed, for example, by our opinion of a judicial expert in the field of phonoscopy” – Kucharski’s lawyers – lawyers Krzysztof Ways and Oskar Sitek answered our questions.
“Since the case has reached the judicial stage, where the prosecutor’s office – fortunately – will no longer be the “investigator” openly supporting Robert Lewandowski at the expense of maintaining the principle of objectivity, the time is slowly coming for this evidence, as well as other such evidence, to be presented to an independent tribunal.” – add the defenders.
The rest of the article is available under the video
Experts listened
According to the indictment, the investigators ordered the examination of the recordings and the supports on which they were given to the prosecution.
They were examined, among others, by a computer expert who tested a USB key and mobile phones provided by lawyer Robert Lewandowski. They recorded conversations between the footballer and his former agent.
“This expert confirmed the identity of the files stored on the recording devices with the files provided at the initial stage of the procedure and declared that there was no computer interference with the data files transferred” – we read in the justification of the indictment.
However, Kucharski’s defenders argued that the recordings should be reviewed by someone familiar with phonoscopy.
That’s why, after the computer guy had done his job, the media switched to phonoscopy. This time at the forensic laboratory of the provincial police headquarters in Poznań.
“In the notice of July 30, 2021, it was stated, among other things, that the presence of possible editing traces in the evidence recordings has not been established. However, the expert found that the examination of the digital recordings requires additional research in the form of an analysis of the frequency fluctuations of the current of the electromagnetic network, which The laboratory is not able to carry out “- inform investigators in the substantiation of the indictment.
The current signal will tell you the truth
This forced prosecutors to order additional tests, and this time they were carried out by experts from the Lublin Bureau of Forensic Expertise. They had to answer the following questions: is there a power grid current signal in the records, is this signal suitable for testing authenticity, or whether the power grid signal present in the records can be used to determine the authenticity of these recordings.
“BES experts in Lublin decided that the leaked electrical current signal was not appropriate to confirm the authenticity of the recordings, however, these recordings should be considered authentic” – say the investigators, referring to the results of the work of experts.
Information from Business Insider Polska shows that the conclusions of the Lublin experts boil down to the statement that “the role of the person analyzing the content of a given media file is not to prove the authenticity of the recording, but to reveal traces indicating its inauthenticity”.
“In a situation where the search based on a given methodology does not reveal traces which could indicate a violation of the authenticity of the recording, the document (as long as its probative value is recognized by the decision-making authority) must be considered authentic” – wrote the experts of the Bureau of Forensic Expertise in Lublin .
However, they reminded investigators that scientific research, including forensic research, does not lead to “absolute certainty”.
“Therefore, the conclusions of the examination of the authenticity of the audio recording should not be stated categorically. Any language suggesting that 100% certainty is achieved should be avoided, except in the case of modifications or known deletions” – say experts from Lublin.
That’s enough for the prosecution
During the trial, the court may appoint additional experts to examine the recordings or the phones on which they were issued. To the investigators, however, three expert opinions to formulate the indictment were enough.
“Experts in the field of computing and phonoscopy, in the aforementioned opinions, did not reveal any trace of manipulation of the subject recordings of the conversations, and they did not in any way question the media submitted to the research” – the prosecutors summarize this thread of the investigation.
If the Warsaw-Śródmieście District Court, to which the indictment was forwarded, decides not to refer it to investigators, Cezary Kucharski’s trial is expected to begin soon. The former agent will argue there that he only conducted negotiations lasting several months, the purpose of which was to settle the cooperation. The prosecution and the injured party, namely Robert Lewandowski, that there was blackmail and attempts to extort 20 million euros.
Bartek Godusławski, journalist at Business Insider Polska