Witold Karczewski – “The African Sorcerer”
On 17 July 2016, I published on the website of the LEX NOSTRA Foundation an article entitled “The African Sorcerer”, in which I described the operational scheme employed on African markets by Witold Karczewski, then (and still) Vice-President of the private trading company Contractus, as well as Vice-President of the National Chamber of Commerce.
Back to Where It All Started
Earlier, acting on behalf of the LEX NOSTRA Foundation, I had submitted an official notification concerning the suspicion of a criminal offence committed by Witold Karczewski (for this reason referred to in the article as “Witold K.”; he has since consented to the publication of his full name by the media), namely corruption in connection with a public tender worth approximately USD 100 million for the supply of agricultural equipment to Kenya. The tender was conducted under an agreement signed on 22 September 2015 between the Government of the Republic of Poland and the Government of the Republic of Kenya.
Pursuant to this agreement, the Polish government granted the Kenyan government a loan of one hundred million US dollars to finance projects aimed at the modernization of agriculture. The company owned by Witold Karczewski won this tender.
The funds allocated for the implementation of the investment constituted public funds provided by the Polish Government, and the Republic of Poland is a party to the Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions.
This Convention obliges the States Parties to criminalize the bribery of foreign public officials, including the imposition of criminal liability and penalties adjudicated by a court. The offence of bribing a foreign public official is defined in the Convention as “the intentional offering, promising or giving of any undue pecuniary or other advantage, directly or through intermediaries, to a foreign public official, for that official or for a third party, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in relation to the performance of official duties, in order to obtain or retain business or other improper advantage in the conduct of international business.”
Several hours before the signing of the agreement triggering the disbursement of funds to the company Contractus, I sent an email to the Ministry of Finance, as a result of which the agreement was not signed by Witold Karczewski.
As a consequence of my notification, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok initiated and continues to conduct an investigation under case file reference RP I Ds. 50.2016, within which charges have been brought against Witold Karczewski.
The further course of the case has been described by the media;
I must admit candidly that at the time I personally submitted the notification, I did not know (and still do not know) Witold Karczewski, nor did I have any awareness that I was infringing the interests of such a powerful, organized structure of international contacts and connections – solely in order to enable the Polish State to avoid a massive international scandal (part of the funds originated from the OECD and the World Bank).
It is therefore hardly surprising that, as was conveyed to me during one of the civil court proceedings – recorded in audio and video form by the court – the examined Witold Karczewski stated that Maciej Lisowski was the cause of all his problems. In light of what I will further document, this statement translated into very serious consequences for me, which indeed followed and continue to this day, and whose effects I experience continuously.
I admit honestly that even if I had known what kind of storm and retaliation against me my notification would unleash – I would have done exactly the same again.
Lukashenko’s key agent in Poland
Witold Karczewski has for many years been linked to the most influential figures, including – most notably – the special services of Belarus and Russia.
Between 2004 and 2020, over a period of sixteen (16) years, Witold Karczewski crossed the Polish-Belarusian border 883 (eight hundred and eighty-three) times, which amounts to an average of approximately 55 crossings per year.
For sixteen years, Witold Karczewski travelled to Belarus on a systematic basis, more than once a week, demonstrating continuous and structured activity on Belarusian territory. This pattern also indicates, inter alia, trips undertaken to receive instructions or to transfer information.
Of particular note is his stay in Belarus from 15 July 2019 to 19 July 2019, during which, together with a Polish citizen who arrived separately – Leszek Lech Szymowski (the son of a negatively vetted officer of the Kraków Security Service), presenting himself as an “investigative journalist” – he allegedly received instructions from Belarusian special services on how to remove me first from public life and subsequently eliminate me entirely.
Karczewski’s means of transport were primarily cars. However, flights to Minsk-2 Airport by private aircrafts also occurred, including flights bearing the following registrations: OE-GVA (Austria, Cessna Citation), D-IAAD (Germany, Embraer Phenom), SP-KFA (Poland, Saab 340), and SP-ZSZ (private helicopter/private aircraft).
In 2016, in my article entitled “The African Sorcerer”, I wrote about Witold Karczewski’s protector, a Belarusian citizen referred to as “Alexander Z.” More extensive coverage of Alexander Zingman was later published in 2025 by journalists from Onet.
At this point, I merely confirm the words of Stanisław Iwaszkiewicz, Editor-in-Chief of the Belarusian Investigative Center, who stated: “Zingman is one of the most important people of Lukashenko and his inner circle in Africa. Unofficially, it is said that Zingman is also involved in arms trading in Africa. There is no hard evidence of this. However, if that were the case, it would have to be said that he is implementing Belarusian and Russian interests. If Belarus sells weapons anywhere, it most likely does not do so without Russia’s knowledge and consent.”
Within all intelligence services, it has “always” been known that Belarus has been, and remains, a ‘window to the world’ for the illegal export of Russian weapons, while Africa constitutes a highly absorbent market.
However, Zingman is only the tip of the iceberg of Belarusian and Russian interests in Africa – interests which are also represented by Witold Karczewski. Karczewski further lends credibility to these interests by holding significant public positions, such as Vice-President of the National Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of the Podlaskie Economic Forum, which this year – acting as the main organizer – is hosting a Christmas wafer meeting to be held in the Aula Magna of the Branicki Palace in Białystok. Among the other fifteen co-organizing institutions is, inter alia, the District Bar Council in Białystok.
Karczewski in Lukashenko’s inner circle
When analyzing Karczewski’s travels, particular attention should be paid to two specific trips.
Witold Karczewski was a member of a top-level delegation of a governmental nature representing the Republic of Belarus.
Flight details:
1. Flight number: MLM 021
2. Date: 10 May 2011
3. Route: DEPARTURE to GHANA (Africa)
4. Aircraft: Registration number 9H-ARK
5. Model: A319 (Airbus A319 Corporate Jet) – a luxury VIP-configured jet. The Maltese registration (9H) indicates a Western charter operator.
Karczewski travels in the company of a dozen or so passengers, including key figures of Belarusian politics and Russian business:
1. VIKTOR SHEIMAN (VIKTOR SZEJMAN): born 1958, holder of a diplomatic passport (DP……). One of the closest associates of Alexander Lukashenko, long-time Head of the Presidential Affairs Directorate, frequently responsible for “special economic missions” in Africa and Latin America.
2. OLEG BURLAKOV (OLEG BURŁAKOW): born 1949, citizen of the Russian Federation. A Russian billionaire listed by Forbes, now deceased.
3. Other passengers: Belarusian state officials holding diplomatic (DP) and service (SP) passports, indicating the exceptionally high status of the mission.
The purpose of the trip was described in flight documentation as “official.” Given the presence of Sheiman and Burlakov, it was most likely a high-level economic mission, potentially concerning raw materials, arms supplies, or other special projects. Witold Karczewski’s presence on board this aircraft, alongside such individuals, demonstrates that his role in Polish-Belarusian relations extended far beyond ordinary commercial activity and involved direct contact with the highest elite of power in Belarus. Karczewski belongs to a narrow circle of individuals granted access to Viktor Sheiman’s “African projects.”
From 14 to 16 May 2011, Witold Karczewski was once again on board a private jet departing from Minsk Airport.
Flight details:
1. Flight number: MLM 021
2. Date: 10 May 2011
3. Route: DEPARTURE to GHANA (Africa)
4. Aircraft: Registration number 9H-ARK
5. Model: A319 (Airbus A319 Corporate Jet), a luxury VIP-configured aircraft operated by a Western charter company under Maltese registration (9H).
The passenger list was almost identical to that of the previously described flight.
The (un)interesting companions of Karczewski’s delegation
Below are profiles of the individuals whom Karczewski accompanied during the African delegations:
VIKTOR SHEIMAN (WIKTOR SZEJMAN)
Viktor Sheiman is the right-hand man of dictator Alexander Lukashenko. He held the most important positions in Belarus: Prosecutor General, Secretary of the Security Council, and Head of the Presidential Administration. Until 2021, he served as Head of the Presidential Affairs Directorate (a key economic post). He is the unofficial curator of the economic interests of the Belarusian authorities in African countries (Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali) and in Latin America (Venezuela). His areas of interest include gold, diamond and oil extraction, as well as arms trading. He is subject to strict sanctions imposed by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
According to Belarusian media, he was involved in the creation of so-called “death squads” which, in the late 1990s, kidnapped and murdered political opponents of Alexander Lukashenko, including Viktor Gonchar, Yuri Zakharenko, and Dmitry Zavadskiy.
From 2013 to 2021, Viktor Sheiman headed the Presidential Affairs Directorate of the Republic of Belarus.
The Presidential Affairs Directorate of the Republic of Belarus is a vast business empire reporting directly to Lukashenko. It includes the tourism sector, hotels, the spa and health resort sector and sanatorium industry together with children’s camps, all national parks and nature reserves without exception, trade and exhibition centers, lotteries, factories producing artistic goods, construction enterprises, as well as duty-free supplies of imported alcohol and tobacco products, oil trading, and the trade in arms and ammunition.
In November 2019, on the instructions of Viktor Sheiman, the company LLC “GardServis” was registered. The company provides protection of facilities and property belonging to companies and private individuals, responds to alarm signals, transports and protects property, escorts goods and vehicles, and designs, installs, and services security systems. Under Presidential Decree No. 227, LLC “GardServis” is authorized to provide security services and to use weapons. It is the only company in Belarus permitted to use firearms. The Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs allocated to the company an arsenal of approximately 300 units of firearms, including automatic weapons and modern, high-powered sniper rifles.
The founder of “GardServis” is Aleksander Michajłowicz Metla, head of the “Memory of Afghanistan” foundation and director of the “Stalin Line” museum, a close friend of Wiktor Szejman.
According to Belarusian media, the security activities of LLC “GardServis” on the territory of the Republic of Belarus serve merely as a cover for the training of special fighters of African dictatorial regimes tasked with protecting deposits whose extraction profits flow into the pockets of the Lukashenko family, as well as for arms trafficking.
The media refer to this company as “Szejman’s Private Military Army” (Szejman’s PMC).
In July 2020, the Belarusian State Security Committee conducted special vetting of seven citizens for appointment to managerial positions in an organization forming part of the Presidential Affairs Directorate system (LLC “GardServis”). These individuals were military colonels who had held positions within the Ministry of Defence related to weapons procurement and maintenance.
At the training base of LLC “GardServis” located at 85 Karvat Street in Minsk, mercenaries recruited from among Belarusian citizens are stationed and trained, including for the protection of Zingman-Sheiman business facilities in Africa. At the same base, migrants were also trained in border assault techniques for subsequent transfer to Poland.
Until 2020, the founder of “GardServis” was the company “Globalcustom-Management”, founded by Alexander Anatoliewicz Romanowski (born 13 April 1975), a former employee of the Presidential Security Service (military unit 01549) and currently the personal bodyguard of Wiktor Szejman. He was also a participant in flights with Witold Karczewski, as was Anton Nowik, another former officer of the Presidential Security Service (military unit 01549), who became a founder and shareholder of “Globalcustom-Management” and LLC “Upstream”.
Wiktor Szejman and Aleksander Romanowski own land plots in the same village at the address: Minsk Region, Puchowicki District, village of Podlipki. In the same village, land plots are owned by Szejman’s brother, sister, and wife.
In March 2018, on the orders of Alexander Lukashenko, Wiktor Szejman traveled to Zimbabwe, where, as a result of negotiations with the government, he obtained permission for gold mining.
The business was supervised on Szejman’s behalf by Aleksander Semechin, a former major of the Belarusian KGB and Sheiman’s personal aide, an employee of LLC “Globalcustom-Management” (the founding company of LLC “GardServis”).
At the same time, in April 2018, Szejman registered the company Zim GoldFields Limited in Zimbabwe. The company’s management was approved personally by Szejman.
Security for Zim GoldFields Limited was entrusted to Aleksander Romanowski, who was responsible for protecting the gold, its transportation, and its delivery.
In Ghana, business operations are conducted by Belarusian oligarch Aleksander Nikołajewicz Zajcew, a Belarusian entrepreneur and owner of numerous trading, logistics, and industrial companies, as well as the football clubs “Dynamo Brześć” (2016-2020) and “Ruch”. A former state official, he is, together with Nikołaj Worobjow (“Lukashenko’s wallet”) and Aleksiej Oleksin (“Lukashenko’s wallet”), the owner of the company “Bremino Group” — the operator of the special economic zone “Bremino-Orsza” and other logistics complexes.
Witold Karczewski Landowner
Witold Karczewski owns thirteen real estate properties in north-eastern Poland, most of which have already been transferred to his wife or to his daughter and son.
From the complete list of these properties, one in particular drew my attention: an undeveloped land plot with an area of 203.6900 hectares located in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in the village of Molwity (Bezledy), land and mortgage register OL1Y/00018931/4, as well as another plot, also located in Molwity (Bezledy), with an area of 70.6600 hectares, land and mortgage register OL1Y/00026815/4. This raises an obvious question: for what purpose does Karczewski need a total of 274.3500 hectares of land situated in close proximity to the Polish border with the Russian Federation?
Another property of interest is a plot of land with an area of 0.1874 hectares, located in the Podlaskie Voivodeship, Augustowski District, Płaska Municipality, in the village of Podmacharce, on which an old summer cottage is situated. In 2003, ownership of this property was acquired by inheritance by Urszula Zajko, who runs – together with her daughter – a law firm in Białystok specializing in family and divorce law. As is well known, disputes of this nature generate intense emotions on the part of the litigants, which can facilitate access to information about the private lives and vulnerabilities of individuals who are often influential figures or public officials.
Given that Witold Karczewski purchased the old summer cottage from attorney Urszula Zajko at what may politely be described as a below-market price, a hypothetical question arises as to whether – and if so, for what information or “favor” – Karczewski paid.
Szymon Hołownia, Marek Sowa and the visa scandal
On 28 March 2025, the second-highest-ranking official in Poland, the Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Szymon Hołownia, sat at the presidium table next to Witold Karczewski during a meeting in Białystok.
This in itself would not have been extraordinary had it not been for the fact that, during this meeting, Hołownia addressed Karczewski with the following words, which caused astonishment not only on my part: “The coalition will make a serious mistake if it replaces me with Czarzasty; it should replace me with you.”
After the incident, Szymon Hołownia claimed that “the services did not warn him whom he was dealing with”, which appears to be a very weak explanation for the manner in which both Hołownia and Karczewski behaved during that meeting, because such behavior is typical of individuals who have known one another and cooperated for many years. However, this is a subject for a separate article.
A separate article should also address MP Marek Sowa and the fact that he devoted virtually his entire time allotted for questioning witnesses during the parliamentary committee proceedings concerning the so-called visa scandal to attacking me personally, referring to me as a Belarusian and Russian agent (an act of exceptional malice), a criminal, and the like. For these statements, once his parliamentary immunity expires, he will stand trial as a defendant.
I do not know Marek Sowa personally; however, it is publicly known that he maintains excellent relations with his brother, Father Kazimierz Sowa, who is a friend of Szymon Hołownia. In the years 2007-2012, at the TVN-owned channel Religia.tv, Father Kazimierz Sowa served as director, while Szymon Hołownia was his deputy and programming director.
During the session of the Rules Committee convened to consider my motion to lift MP Marek Sowa’s parliamentary immunity so that he could be brought before a court, Marek Sowa admitted that the content of the “bucket of slop” he publicly poured over me during the work of the parliamentary inquiry committee on the so-called visa scandal was taken exclusively from a 2019 article about me authored by the previously mentioned Leszek Lech Szymowski, as well as from a chapter of a book by Tomasz Piątek.
It so happens that Tomasz Piątek’s former wife, with whom he maintains very good relations, is Hanna Gill-Piątek. In September 2020, Hanna Gill-Piątek resigned from membership in the Left parliamentary caucus and the Wiosna party, joining Szymon Hołownia’s movement Poland 2050. In November 2020, she became vice-chair of the political party of the same name (registered in March 2021). In February 2021, together with Joanna Mucha and Paulina Hennig-Kloska, she co-founded the Poland 2050 Parliamentary Group, of which she became chair.
Hanna Gill-Piątek was a columnist for Gazeta Wyborcza, as was freelance journalist Małgorzata Tomczak, who currently publishes in oko.press. From what I have been told, they know each other well and work closely together.
What’s Next: Threats and Further Stories
According to information I have received, Małgorzata Tomczak is preparing a defamatory article about me, attempting to “attach” both me and the Order of the Blessed Virgin Mary (“Zakon Najświętszej Maryi Panny”) to abuses recently revealed by nationwide media as having been committed by certain religious organizations in Poland. To make matters more curious, the allegedly incriminating documents were supposedly sold to Witold Karczewski by Marcin O. I therefore use only the initial of his surname, as these documents are forged – most likely by Marcin O. – given that I have already encountered similar falsified documents from other sources.
It is also noteworthy that Małgorzata Tomczak has so far specialized in writing about the so-called visa scandal and about individuals defending the rights of migrants storming the border with Belarus. One might ask whether she was also trained at the training base of LLC “GardServis” located at 85 Karvat Street in Minsk, Belarus?
Maciej Lisowski
Director of the LEX NOSTRA Foundation
P.S. Continuation to follow soon — unless I’m killed or arrested before that.
