Nearly one million złoty – to be exact, PLN 972,110.83 – is the amount for which the Ministry of Justice has frozen the bank accounts of the Foundation for the Promotion of Mediation and Legal Education LEX NOSTRA. Not on the basis of a final, legally binding court judgment. Not as part of enforcement proceedings – because the LEX NOSTRA Foundation does not owe any money. But under the procedure of an administrative interim measure (security seizure) – an extraordinary measure applied to claims that are not yet final, on the principle of securing the Ministry’s future and uncertain receivables, on which a court has yet to rule. This is an extraordinary protective measure, used only when there is a likelihood that the other party to administrative proceedings will conceal its assets or cease operations – making it impossible to enforce the claim later.
The amount the Ministry of Justice has been demanding since 28 January 2020 is PLN 547,127.59, increased by interest at a rate of 16% per year, which currently totals PLN 422,464.95. I stress once again: the claim is not final and is the subject of ongoing court proceedings.
For 6.5 years, it did not occur to officials at the Ministry of Justice to apply such an absurd security measure against a foundation that has operated continuously for 16 years, has not changed its registered office in 14 years, and has always acted openly and transparently. A few months after the change of Minister of Justice to Minister Waldemar Żurek, the Ministry of Justice suddenly and without warning initiated the security seizure procedure. And did so once without legal effect.
Two attempts in under six months
First attempt – December 2025. The Ministry of Justice applies to the tax office for a seizure of the Foundation’s bank accounts. The application is signed by the Deputy Director of the Department of the Justice Fund, Marcin Krzystyniak.
The competent tax office – acting on its own authority, without the Foundation’s involvement – refused to carry out the seizure, finding no grounds for it. It informed the Ministry of Justice in writing that the tax office would not execute a seizure based on the documents submitted to it by the Ministry.
The Foundation learned of the Ministry of Justice’s application only 13 days after the tax office’s refusal, based on a copy of Marcin Krzystyniak’s letter to the tax office, which the Ministry of Justice forwarded to the Foundation for information a month late.
This time, a successful action – June 2026. The Ministry of Justice does not accept the tax office’s refusal. It supplements its previous application with form ZZ-1, and this time the tax office can no longer refuse. Because, in theory, the documents are complete, and the tax office is merely a technical executor of the seizure – it cannot examine the actual basis of the claim, and the determination of the claim is shockingly made by the creditor itself, i.e. the Ministry of Justice, in its own case… Oversight by the Tax Office is legally blocked, especially since the alleged debt is being examined by a court in proceedings that are still ongoing and have not been concluded.
The Ministry of Justice official entered on the ZZ-1 form, as the grounds for the seizure, that the Foundation kept unreliable accounting books. During dozens of audits of the LEX NOSTRA Foundation conducted in recent years, no authority has ever made a final finding of any unreliability in the keeping of its accounting books.
In light of the above, the Ministry of Justice official who signed the letter put his signature to content that we state directly in the open letter: circumstances have arisen indicating the certification of an untruth within the meaning of Article 271 § 1 of the Penal Code.
In this matter, I have filed a report with the prosecutor’s office regarding the possible commission of a crime by the Deputy Director of the Department of the Justice Fund, Marcin Krzystyniak. We are waiting for a second report – concerning the second letter – to be filed ex officio by Minister Żurek, once he learns from this open letter about the certification of an untruth in the second application submitted to the tax office.
A Public Benefit Organization. Sixteen years of work for citizens
The LEX NOSTRA Foundation has existed since 2010. For sixteen years it has served citizens wronged by the legal system, providing free legal aid, mediation, legal education, and social programs. It has carried out thirty-two projects financed from public funds – none of them ended with a final, legally binding order to return funds. The only project subject to court proceedings is the one for which the Ministry preemptively seized its unresolved claims directly from the Foundation’s bank accounts – by using the extraordinary measure of a security seizure. The LEX NOSTRA Foundation currently provides support to several thousand people.
The Foundation has operated continuously – regardless of political changes, regardless of who held the position of Minister of Justice. Its office has seen, one after another: Andrzej Czuma, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, Jarosław Gowin, Marek Biernacki, Cezary Grabarczyk, Borys Budka, Zbigniew Ziobro, Marcin Warchoł, Adam Bodnar – up to the current Minister, Mr. Waldemar Żurek.
The Foundation has never before been the victim of such lawlessness on the part of state authorities. What has happened since the current Minister of Justice took office exceeds all bounds – not only of decency, but of the law itself.
What is at stake is the Foundation’s continued existence
The amount of PLN 972,110.83 is not, in this case, an abstract dispute over money – because the Foundation does not have even a small fraction of such funds. Seizing and taking all the money from the Foundation’s accounts, in an amount this large, effectively ends the operations of the LEX NOSTRA Foundation as a Public Benefit Organization. It ends 16 years of work.
With such a massive seizure of accounts, any future income the Foundation might receive will be redirected through the tax office to the Ministry of Justice. The Foundation is not even able to pay its electricity bill. We will be forced to end 16 years of assistance to people.
Why an open letter?
The Foundation has already sent formal letters to the Ministry of Justice. It has filed complaints with the enforcement authority. It has submitted a report to the prosecutor’s office regarding the possible commission of a crime, among others under Article 231 § 1 of the Penal Code, by the Deputy Director of the Department of the Justice Fund, Marcin Krzystyniak, who signed the first application for the seizure. We are waiting for a second report – concerning the official who signed the second application to the tax office – to be filed ex officio by Minister Żurek, once he learns from this open letter about the certification of an untruth in that second application.
But there are things that must be said publicly. Because if the state – represented in one person by the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General – can act this way against a sixteen-year-old Public Benefit Foundation, it means it can act the same way against any non-governmental organization, any association, and in practice against any citizen.
All it takes is for an official at any Ministry to tick a single box on a form, and the tax office – which in this matter is merely the executor – will carry out the seizure. The alleged debtor will only find out about it after seeing their bank accounts emptied and further seizures that effectively make it impossible to continue day-to-day operations.
The LEX NOSTRA Foundation refuses to give its silent consent to such a destructive and oppressive model of state action.
Full text of the open letter
Below we publish the full text of the open letter addressed to Mr. Waldemar Żurek, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Poland and Prosecutor General. The letter contains specific questions to which we – as an organization that has served the citizens of the Republic of Poland for sixteen years – expect answers.
FLN-open-letter-Zurek-03-08-2026 (PDF)
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Maciej Lisowski
Director of the Foundation for the Promotion of Mediation and Legal Education LEX NOSTRA
