Jacek Krzysztof Karnowski (born 16 August 1963) is a Polish politician who has been serving as Minister of State of the Ministry of Development Funds and Regional Policy since 25 June 2024 and served as Mayor of Sopot from 1998 to 2023. He has also been the chairman of Yes! For Poland since 2021 and a member of the Sejm since 2023.
In July 2008,Stanisław Julke,an entrepreneur,informed the local procuratorate of a reported illegal dealing involving Karnowski,wherein the mayor wanted compensation in the form of two flats in exchange for adding a floor to a historic tenement,beginning the so-called "Sopot affair" (Polish:afera sopocka).[5] Karnowski disagreed and stated that the entrepreneur wanted to renovate the historic building,but was sent to a conservator-restorer.[6] After a recording of a conversation he had on the matter was revealed to the public,[7] he suspended his Civic Platform membership[8] and then resigned from the party.[9]
In January 2009,he was accused of eight corruption-related charges by a procurator,intending to put him in pre-trial detention,but this was dismissed by the court.[10] Karnowski then proposed a referendum that would decide whether he would be removed from the mayoral role. A request signed by 4,500 people was submitted to the Electoral Committee in Gdańsk,and the vote was scheduled for 17 May 2009.[11]Voter turnout,around 40%,was enough to make the referendum valid,and 62% of voters voted not to remove Karnowski.[12]
In June 2010,the procurator of the appeal procuratorate in Gdańsk indicted Karnowski of six of the eight original charges.[13][14] In September,a court of first instance rejected the charges,as there was not enough evidence to prove the mayor's guilt.[15] In December 2011,the same procuratorate indicted Karnowski of four charges.[16] They were progressively dismissed by courts until,in 2015,the Sopot Regional Court of First Instance cleared Karnowski of a majority of them,which was upheld by a court in Gdańsk in 2016.[17][18]
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