Today, the portal wyborcza.pl published a statement from the editorial team regarding the article of 20 December 2022 entitled ‘Wyborcza reveals: This is how the law was written for Obajtek to sell Lotos.’ This publication sparked a wave of unjustified criticism against Prof. AMU Maciej Mataczyński, PhD, Managing Partner at SMM Legal, and the law firm itself, and initiated a series of articles aimed at discrediting both Mr Mataczyński and SMM Legal.
An article by Wojciech Czuchnowski in Gazeta Wyborcza and on the wyborcza.pl website contained information that could suggest Prof. Mataczyński played an unauthorised role in the work on amending the Act on the Control of Certain Investments.
Prof. Maciej Mataczyński, a recognized expert and authority in the field of commercial law and capital markets, participated in the work on the amendment to the Act on the Control of Certain Investments in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of these activities was to strengthen the mechanisms for protecting the Polish economy. However, the article suggested that his role was motivated by private interests and linked to the benefits of specific individuals and companies.
It should be emphasised that the allegation published by Gazeta Wyborcza, according to which Prof. Mataczyński prepared the amendment to the Act in the interest of PKN ORLEN and Mr Daniel Obajtek in order to enable the sale of LOTOS Group assets to Saudi Aramco without the control of the relevant authorities, including the special services, is untrue. Prof. Maciej Mataczyński’s involvement in the amendment to the act was not political in nature and was not motivated by a desire to achieve legal effects beneficial to Mr Daniel Obajtek or PKN ORLEN S.A.
‘The most serious allegations were simply blatant lies. The less serious ones were half-truths fabricated to tarnish my reputation as much as possible,’ comments Prof. Mataczyński.
It is worth noting that on 9 July 2025, the Act on the Control of Certain Investments was passed in a form virtually unchanged from the 2020 version. As a result of the Government Amendment, the validity of the aforementioned Act, as amended by Prof. Maciej Mataczyński, was extended indefinitely.
In March 2023, Prof. Maciej Mataczyński filed a lawsuit for protection of personal rights against editor Wojciech Czuchnowski, Gazeta Wyborcza and Agora S.A. Today’s statement by the editorial office is the result of a settlement proposed by the defendant.
‘Anyone who knows and understands the dynamics of the media and the judicial process knows that this move by Gazeta Wyborcza is an admission of guilt,’ adds Prof. Maciej Mataczyński.
The content of the statement:
“The editorial staff of wyborcza.pl regrets that the information contained in the article entitled ‘Wyborcza reveals: This is how the law was written for Obajtek to sell Lotos’, published on 20 December 2022 on the wyborcza.pl website, may have wrongly suggested that the expert involvement of Prof. AMU Maciej Mataczyński, PhD, in the work on the draft amendment to the Act of 24 July 2015 on the control of certain investments was not motivated by the public interest, but was aimed at furthering the interests of Mr Daniel Obajtek and ORLEN S.A.”
