Businessmen spill the beans over being milked for "donations" by SLD

Two famous businessmen from Łódź, the Gałkiewicz brothers, have turned to the Internal Security Agency (ABW) and disclosed that they have been paying politicians of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) in Łódź for the several past years in order to run their business smoothly. Both businessmen are among the wealthiest men in Poland with assets worth around zł.300 million and control Polros, the largest European producer of trees and ornamental shrubs. At first the brothers paid zł.100,000 to support the Widzew Łódź football club, and another zł.40,000 towards Andrzej Pęczak's election campaign in his bid to become an SLD Sejm deputy. They were encouraged to financially support various local government elections, although no sums were revealed. The Gałkiewicz brothers also said they paid zł.50,000 towards the campaign run by the Mayor of Łódź, SLD's Krzysztof Jagiełło who was ran for re-election. (Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 4) A.K.