Poland's biggest crypto exchange claimed 1.3 million customers and 4,500 bitcoin. The ledger showed 0.086. Both of the men who ran it are missing.

In March 2022, founder Sylwester Suszek drove to a fuel depot outside Katowice and never returned. His family received ransom demands payable in bitcoin. His lawyer, Przemysław Kral, took over — and spent heavily on football sponsorships, the Polish Olympic Committee and a platform at Davos.

In April 2026, blockchain analysts found the main bitcoin hot wallet had fallen 99.7 percent. Days later Kral told customers their money sat safe in a wallet only the missing founder could unlock. That address had been dormant since 2016. A week after he said it, the website went dark. Nobody has seen him since.

We trace how the exchange worked, what the on-chain record documents, and how the collapse became a Polish political crisis. We label every claim throughout as documented, claimed, or alleged.

Chapters

(00:00) The office nobody ever entered(00:59) What this episode covers(01:41) How the exchange actually worked(03:14) What an Estonian license really bought(04:27) The first disappearance(05:56) Why careful people believed it(06:52) Somebody checks the ledger(08:30) A word on how we're funded(09:17) 511 transfers to one address(11:41) The video, and the second disappearance(13:20) Where the case stands now(15:24) What we still don't know

Sources: Recoveris on-chain case study (28 April 2026); Estonian FIU licence decisions (18 May, 29 June 2026); Polish National Prosecutor's Office statements; Sejm record (17 April 2026); Estonian court filings (27 July 2026). Corroborated against The New York Times, money.pl, Rzeczpospolita, TVN24 and Notes from Poland.

We have independently verified no allegation of Russian state or organized-crime involvement. Those remain political statements with no charges filed, and Kral has called them absurd.

Read the full investigation, with charts and source documents

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Venezuela pumps more oil than it has in a decade. Its minimum wage buys twenty-seven cents a month. We trace where the money goes, and who actually controls it.

On 3 January 2026, American special forces took Nicolás Maduro out of a Caracas military compound. His deputy, Delcy Rodríguez, took power two days later. Since then Venezuelan crude output has passed 1.1 million barrels a day, and Washington has taken control of the revenue.

Executive Order 14373 placed Venezuelan oil money inside US Treasury accounts. Caracas submits a monthly budget request. The Secretary of State decides whether to approve it. Around $13 billion has moved through that system. Reporters have publicly traced roughly $300 million arriving in Venezuela.

CHAPTERS

00:00 The one-dollar Christmas bonus

01:16 The night the US took Maduro

02:39 The machine Washington built

05:04 The money nobody can find

08:17 Give them this: the oil came back

09:34 The war that pays Venezuela's bills

10:32 Twenty-seven cents

13:13 Three ways this ends

Full article, every figure sourced, free to read: https://veritaseuropaea.com/venezuela-economy-delcy-rodriguez-oil-washington/

Corrections: editor@veritaseuropaea.com

Ukraine can build $55 billion of weapons in 2026. Its own budget will fund roughly $10 billion.

In four years Ukraine turned a hollowed-out Soviet legacy sector into Europe's fastest-innovating defense industrial base. Drone output went from roughly 3,000 units in 2022 to about 4.5 million in 2025. Ministry figures put capacity growth at fiftyfold.

Then the problem inverted. Ukraine once lacked factories. It now lacks purchase orders.

We examine how the transformation happened, why procurement reform mattered more than engineering, and what could unwind it — the funding gap, Chinese component dependency, and a corruption investigation that has reached the heart of the deep-strike programme.

Chapters

(00:00) The $45 billion gap(00:48) Welcome to The Veritas Brief(01:26) Zero shells: the 2021 baseline(02:32) Improvisation and dispersal(03:36) The rule that built an industry(04:38) From 3,000 drones to 4.5 million(06:05) Interceptors, sea drones, deep strike(08:26) Why we carry no advertising(09:35) Capacity versus contracts(10:36) The Danish model and the fiscal wall(12:17) The 2026 export pivot(13:44) The China component problem(14:59) Fire Point and the corruption shadow(16:52) What Europe actually wants(17:46) The verdict and three markers(18:58) Where to read the full investigation

Full written investigation

Six data visualizations and every source linked

Sources and method

Primary documentation from Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, the Ministry of Defense, and the 2026 state budget law. Research from the Kyiv School of Economics Institute, RAND Corporation, RUSI, the Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), and the Centre for Economic Strategy. Reporting from the Kyiv Independent, Ukrainska Pravda, Reuters, Kyiv Post, Defense News, Militarnyi and Lawfare.

On verification

Ukrainian production figures come predominantly from government sources and remain unaudited by independent parties. Wartime security restrictions prevent external verification of most output claims. Treat capacity and volume figures as directional indicators rather than confirmed data.

About

Veritas Europaea publishes slow journalism on European political economy, finance and geopolitics. Reader-funded. No advertising. No party reviewed this work before publication.

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