Gi Group Holdings has denied claims by Work Service co-founder Tomasz Misiak that he was blackmailed over the sale of Work Service shares. An arbitration court in Poland also sided with Gi Group against Misiak.

Polish newspaper Puls Biznesu reported that Misiak, also a former Polish politician, claims that he was blackmailed on the sale of Work Service shares, however the newspaper added that investigators and courts do not believe him.

On August 2020, GI Group completed the transaction of its controlling interest in Work Service, a Polish staffing firm and RPO provider.

In a statement, Gi Group said it denies that the purchasing of Work Service was made in connection with any threats made against Misiak.

“This has been confirmed by the final judgment of the ICC Arbitration Court which found that T. Misiak had freely entered into the contract without any threats, and condemned Mr. Misiak to pay PLN 5.9 million (€1.2 million) to Gi Group Holding for not complying with his commitment to sell his shares.”

“The same conclusion, namely that there is no evidence suggesting the alleged threat, was reached by all (three) panels of the Regional Court of Warsaw, which ruled in second-instance injunction proceedings on the claims of T. Misiak. These claims relating to the alleged threats have already been subject of rulings of five different bodies (three panels of state courts, the prosecutor and an arbitration tribunal), none of which gave credence to them,” the company stated.

Despite the final ICC Arbitral Award, Gi Group Holding stated that it has not received any payment by Misiak who declared that he does not own any assets nor properties. For this reason, Gi Group Holding has opened a civil proceeding against Misiak including proceedings to declare the enforceability of the award of the arbitration.

At the same time, the court has expressed doubt regarding Misiak’s statements of his financial situation and is conducting an investigation.

Meanwhile, Radio Zet reports that Misiak's lawyers have filed a complaint against the court's decision.

Gi Group noted that there are no legal grounds allowing to set aside the Arbitral Award issued by the ICC Tribunal.

“This Award was issued by three of the most respected arbitrators, in accordance with the ICC procedural rules, international standards and after an in-depth examination of the case by the ICC Tribunal,” Gi Group stated. “In particular, all the arbitrators were selected in a standard procedure in which both parties had the opportunity to challenge each arbitrator. Mr. Misiak began challenging one of the arbitrators only after the ruling unfavorable to him was issued.”

Misiak has also, along with other managers of Work Service, been accused of defrauding PFRON (the National Disabled Persons Rehabilitation Fund in Poland) of PLN 42 million (€9.0 million) in subsidies.

Gi Group has maintained that this happened before it became a shareholder, adding that it has nothing to do with the matter.

“Nevertheless, Gi Group Holding is ready to take all necessary steps to fully cooperate with Polish authorities and to take all the needed actions to preserve the reputation and honorability of its subsidiary Gi Group Poland (former Work Service),” the group stated.

In the interview with Puls Biznesu, Misiak said that his ex-wife ‘played a significant role in my conflict with the company that took over Work Service, as I was threatened with her testimony in order to force a lower share sale price,’ adding that his ex-wife ‘remains to this day in cooperation with my opponents’. Misiak was referring to Gi Group as his ‘opponents’.

Gi Group Holding issued a response to this accusation.

“Gi Group totally rejects to be in any kind of cooperation with Eva Mantziou, former wife of Mr. Misiak and former employee of Work Service. Gi Group has instead three court proceedings with Eva Mantziou, for topics referred to the period in which she was an employee of Work Service before the entering of Gi Group Holding.”

Radio Zet reports that lawyers have described Eva Mantziou as an ‘unreliable witness’ because she is in a multi-threaded family conflict with Tomasz Misiak.

Staffing Industry Analysts have reached out to Gi Group for further comment, but the company has not yet responded.