Loan shark from Rzeszów sentenced to 5 years in prison
Entrepreneur Jarosław K. was sentenced by the Regional Court in Rzeszów to 5 years imprisonment for running an illegal lending business.
Loan shark from Rzeszów sentenced to 5 years in prison
Jarosław K. heard on Thursday the sentence of 5 years in prison for lending activities based on the financial exploitation of customers. The decision of the Regional Court in Rzeszów was announced in the defendant's absence; he was represented by a lawyer.
Ten people harmed by his activities appeared at the hearing. One of them was Waldemar, who in difficult financial circumstances decided to borrow over 140,000 zlotys from Jarosław K. When he later found a buyer for his house and intended to settle his obligation, it turned out that the contract contained a clause requiring the lender's approval for every real estate transaction.
Another victim, Krystyna, needed capital to develop her business. The obligation taken out from Jarosław K. plunged her into a spiral of mounting debts.
In the justification of the ruling, Judge Mariusz Sztorc indicated that the true purpose of the defendant's activity was not earning on interest, but taking over clients' real estate property. Jarosław K. deliberately selected people with credit problems whom banks rejected. Formally, he provided them with loans, but in fact paid out smaller sums than declared in the documents, dividing them into instalments.
"These interest rates, which reached very high levels, should be unambiguously defined as usurious," emphasised Judge Sztorc.
Lawyer Sławomir Pawłowski applied for the acquittal of his client. He argued that with such transactions and bills of exchange, demanding security is standard, and the division of payments resulted from the necessity of registering a mortgage and other forms of security.
The ruling can still be appealed.
Source: TVP Rzeszów
Source: Google News PL — Crime (pl)