How a Polish politician got into tourism on Korčula
Mašenjka Bačić (Oštro), Daniel Fils (OKO.press/Frontstory)
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Tomasz Poręba, a Polish member of the EU Parliament, opaquely purchased real estate on Korčula which was falsely advertised as having a private beach
The Korčula Hill complex where Odyssey Dream owns 2 apartments. Foto: Oštro/Frontstory
The summer hit Despacito was playing for the third time in one hour. But no one of the many tourists drinking cocktails or wine at the beach bar La’Banya on island Korčula didn’t seem to notice.
Banya is like many other beach bars on the Croatian coast. Its lounge chairs and sun umbrellas are lined up by the sea, interspersed with towels of those who do not want to pay for this service. From La’Banya one can see vacation houses surrounding the beach in the bay called Žrnovska Banja.
A complex of eleven modern white buildings with big windows stands out. It is called Korčula Hill and the buildings are owned by companies and individuals who mostly rent apartments to tourists.
One of them is Tomasz Piotr Poręba, a Polish member of EU Parliament from the right-wing party Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Order). At the EU Parliament, he is a member of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR).
His apartments are advertised on Booking.com and until 1 September, when Poręba received questions from Frontstory, the ads boasted of access to a private beach. But La’Banya, or simply Banja in Croatian, is a public beach.
Between 2015 to 2021, Poręba and his wife Agnieszka Magdalena bought 3 apartments in Korčula Hill for a total of 760,000 euros. They established a Croatian company to purchase two of them.
As a Polish official, Poręba is obliged to report his properties to the Chancellery of the Sejm, the lower chamber of the Parliament as well as to the tax office, but Oštro, OKO.press and Frontstory found that he didn’t report them correctly.
A politician’s tourist business
Poręba and his wife purchased first apartment in the Korčula Hill complex in August 2015 when he was already a member of the EU Parliament. According to the sale contract, they paid 230,000 euros for the 116 sqm apartment with a 37 sqm balcony overlooking the sea.
In 2016, the couple established Odyssey Dream, a Croatian company that will be used for renting and leasing real estate. The following year Poręba and his wife signed an agreement of cooperation with their company Odyssey Dream according to which the couple would receive 5950 euros per year from the company using their apartment which they would use for the building’s maintenance.
That year, 2017, Odyssey Dream bought another apartment in the same complex for 350,000 euros. With 174 sqm and a 75 sqm balcony, this apartment was even larger than the first one.
Finally, in 2021 the company bought the third apartment in Korčula Hill, this time for 180,000 euros. It was the smallest of the three, »only« 88 sqm and a balcony of 33 sqm.
The Porębas loaned their company money to purchase the 74 sqm apartment and most likely the 88 sqm one too, financial accounts of Odyssey Dream show.
The Booking.com listing for the apartments shows they can be rented in spring, summer and early autumn for a minimum of five nights. On 2 September, a one week stay this month would cost 1663 euros.
Photographs used in the listing reveal elegant interiors in a refined color mix of beiges, grays and whites. An all-glass front guarantees a sweeping view of the Adriatic sea and the lush Mediterranean forest surrounding the bay.
The public beach in the Žrnovska Banja bay on Korčula. Foto: Oštro/Frontstory
The listing has 4 stars. Until 1 September when Poręba received questions from Frontstory the ads boasted of access to a private beach. That changed the following day. The listing then said that the beach is 1,5 kilometers away which is not true either.
But Banja is not a private beach but a public one. Korčula Hill, the company that built the tourist complex, holds a government concession for commercial use of maritime public good.The concession’s terms are clear – the company cannot deny the public access to the beach.
When a journalist from OKO.press tried to reserve an apartment owned by Odyssey Dream as a tourist, a representative of the Forteca agency from Dubrovnik told him in a phone call that »a private beach« means that the beach is for guests of Korčula Hill. But when an Oštro journalist visited the beach five months later she could confirm that everyone could access the beach.
Although Odyssey Dream was renting two of its apartments and one owned by the company’s owners, it recorded losses in all business years, except in 2019. It has no employees.
Ante Beus, a court expert for finance and accounting, reviewed financial accounts of Odyssey Dream and found that the company seemed dubious because its business does not show any indications that it was established with the objective of making a profit.
»There are many paravan companies in Croatia that were not established with the objective of profit-making but for purchasing properties that could not have been obtained otherwise«, Beus added.
Non-transparent asset reporting
Because two apartments were owned by the company, Poręba was not obliged to declare them in his asset declaration. He did report that he and his wife run a »company abroad with a tourism profile« but Oštro, OKO.press and Frontstory found that some of his other declarations may have been incorrect.
One apartment owned by Odyssey Dream was bought with a loan given by its owners, Poręba and his wife, which he did not declare but was obliged to under Polish law. According to the company’s 2017 financial accounts, the Porębas loaned Odyssey Dream 353 thousand euros to purchase the second apartment.
Tomasz Poręba at a plenary session in Strasbourg in 2013. Foto: Christian Creutz, European Parliament
In 2018 the loans grew to 428 thousands euros and thereafter remained around the same value. In 2021, the company bought another apartment for 180 thousand euros.
Also in 2021, Poręba declared ownership of a 88 sqm apartment to the Polish authorities. Its size corresponds with the size of the second apartment bought by Odyssey Dream. But its value does not correspond. Poręba declared it was worth 150 thousand euros although his company purchased it for 180 thousand euros.
The first apartment in Korčula Hill that Poręba bought with his wife in 2015 was incorrectly reported to the Polish Chancellery of the Sejm. At the time, he had already been an MEP for six years.
In 2015, Poręba noted in his asset declaration that he and his wife purchased a 116 sqm apartment valued at 150.000 euros. But the sale contract obtained by Oštro shows that its price was 230.000 euros and its size was bigger as it included a 37 sqm balcony and two parking spots that he did not have to declare.
In his 2017 asset declaration, he estimated that the 116 sqm apartment was worth 140,000 euros which he lowered to just 120,000 euros in declarations he filed in the years 2018 to 2020.According to Croatian land registry records, the Porębas sold this apartment in 2021 for 370.000 euros.
Influence over problems
Until June 2023, Tomasz Poręba was the campaign manager of the Law and Justice party in the ongoing parliamentary election campaign. Elections are called for 15 of October this year.
He resigned from his post under pressure from intra-party criticism. Among other things, he was slammed for including images from the Auschwitz death camp in a video he produced with the intention to discourage participation in an opposition march on 4 June.
According to the criminal complaint published by a Polish NGO, it was filed against Poręba in 2021 for alleged incitement of hatred in a video produced when he was the Law and Justice campaign manager for the 2018 local elections. In the video, the Law and Justice party said that if the opposition seized power, it would create »enclaves of Muslim refugees« in Poland and the number of sexual assaults would grow because of attacks by them.
The European Parliament has been considering a request from a Polish court to waive Poręba's immunity since February 2023.
For years, Poręba was an influential Law and Justice politician. He sits on the EU Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee and was deputy prime minister Jarosław Kaczyński’s trusted man in Bruxelles for years. He also heads the New Direction Foundation, an EU-subsidized think tank of ECR, a political group in the EU Parliament.
It is unknown how Poręba discovered Korčula, or if he and his family use Odyssey Dream’s apartments.
In 2020, New Direction organized a conference about the impact of the Covid crisis on sport, tourism and agriculture on Korčula together with the local municipality and a football club. Poręba spoke at the event alongside Ruža Tomašić, a former Croatian MEP and former vice president of the board of New Direction, and Marko Milanović Litre, a current Croatian MEP and the current vice president at the same foundation.
Poręba did not answer detailed questions sent by email or calls made to him. Instead, he texted Frontstory the following statement:
»Your questions are insinuating and have no support in reality. They are of a lying, slanderous nature and are simply offensive to me. I judge them as politically motivated because it is clear who your environment represents. All the actions I have taken have been transparent, in accordance with all regulations, and scrupulously recorded in my asset declarations. I kindly inform you that, if I consider that you will have violated my good name with your publication, I will take appropriate legal action. I look forward to seeing my response published in full«.”
*DOPUNA, 6.9.2023.: In the first version of the story we incorrectly wrote that Korčula Hill has concession for restaurant and the beach. The correct information is that it has concession on maritime property.
We apologize for the mistake.
*DOPUNA, 6.9.2023.: In the first version of the story we incorrectly wrote that Korčula Hill has concesion for restaurant and the beach. The correct information is that it has government concession for commercial use of maritime public good.
We apologize for the mistake.