ZT clears legal hurdle

City Hall, which has a stake in the retail project, has reacted negatively to the decision. In 2003 Warsaw President Lech Kaczyński submitted information of a suspected crime to the prosecutor's office in relation to ZT. According to City Hall, the ZT company lost more than zł.32 million as a result of a deal with Dutch firm ING Real Estate. The latter has been managing the construction of the ZT shopping center since 1999. According to the original agreement between ING and ZT, ING's costs would be up to six percent of the total investment costs. The estimates five years ago were that the construction would come to at least $380 (zł.1,303) million. City Hall inspectors have accused the management board of ZT of not documenting the services of ING Real Estate, thereby inflating investment costs. Now, after two years of investigation, the prosecutor's office decided that no crime was committed as no property damage occurred and ZT was not threatened by bankruptcy.