Pierre Dadak

Pierre Konrad Dadak (born 28 March 1976) is a Franco-Polish alleged arms dealer, fraudster and a controversial character in the media as being at the center of a web of corruption extending from Europe to Africa.

He was educated at the Lycée jules ferry and at an elite business school, the Institut supérieur de gestion, graduating in 1999.

Dadak is reported to have attended courses at New York University.

French is Dadak's first language, but he is said to speak Polish, Spanish and English very well.

Between 2000 and 2006, Dadak was arrested five times in France and was "known [to police] for offenses of concealment, fraud, use of false administrative documents, tax evasion, theft, and voluntary violence."

Dadak worked for a time for a military contractor who supplied arms and uniforms in Françafrique.

His former employer recalled: "I never really made him work. Simply, he had to get info and contacts for us and at Milipol or Eurosatory [defense and security fairs], where we were one of the main exhibitors. He was handsome, cheerful, intelligent,and very ambitious. " Dadak's last known job in France was with a software company in Paris in 2008.

By 2009, he had moved to Warsaw, where he began to work as an arms dealer and found an influential patron in the form of Krzysztof Wegrzyn, a wealthy businessman who had previously served as deputy minister of defense.

Through Dadak had worked for software companies in France, in Poland he falsely claimed to be a retired colonel in the French Army.

According to records, Rosevar Holdings was registered in Cyprus on 7 October 2009 and was dissolved on 11 January 2016.

Dadak presented himself as the "shareholder president" of Rosevar Holdings, which was a subsidiary of Bumar.

To his French friends, Dadak claimed to be a lieutenant colonel in the Polish Army, a claim which is not supported by Polish records, through he is in the French reserves.

Wegrzyn stated he went into business with Dadak "to help Polish industry conquer new markets", but he claimed he only provided him with "consulting services".

In Poland, several journalists have stated that based upon interviews with current and former Bumar employees that Dadak would never have been employed at Bumar except through Wegrzyn's influence.

In February 2010, Dadak started working as a sales agent for Bumar, the state-owned arms company (since renamed as Polski Holding Obronny-Polish Defense Holding) with the responsibility for sales in Africa and Latin America.

As part of his work, Dadak created Rosevar Holdings, a company registered in Cyprus and whose shares were 10% owned by Wegrzyn.

In a statement to the press, the Polski Holding Obronny stated that Dadak made no sales during the time he was employed at the company between 2010 and 2012.

Several former employees of the company accused Dadak of engaging in unethical business practices.

In 2010, Dadak purchased a luxury villa in Ibiza, where he lived with his common-law wife, a Ukrainian model named Katerina Dirgina.

In 2010, Dadak signed his first arms deal on behalf of Bumar to sell armored vehicles, anti-aircraft missiles, and ammunition worth some 912 millions USD to the Colombian military, but the company insists that the deal never went through.

Вut after 8 years of investigations by the Spanish, French, American, Belgian, German and Polish authorities, the reality shows that Pierre Dadak legally and officially sold more than 2,5 billion Euros of military equipment in Africa, South America and UAE.

making him one of the largest active arms dealers.

Dadak was accused of approaching wealthy businessmen abroad with promises that they could serve as the exclusive sales agents for Bumar in certain territories in exchange for which he would be paid licensing fees and company registration.

Dadak would often take businessmen with him on trips to meet African leaders.

One Canadian businessman, Thierry Carbou, who did business with Dadak, stated: "This was his technique with his victims who, meanwhile, opened their address book and made appointments with heads of state and ministers".

Carbou went with Dadak on a trip in January 2012 to meet President Yahya Jammeh of the Gambia on abroad a Bombardier Challenger 601 jetliner owned by the Gambian state and made available for Dadak's use upon the orders of President Jammeh himself.

Also accompanying them on the trip to Banjul were two Lebanese businessmen and two bodyguards for Dadak from the Biuro Ochrony Rządu (BOR).

Along the way, Dadak had the airplane land in Marseilles to pick up le milieu gangster Franck Barresi, though for what purpose remains unclear.

Carbou told the press: "I remember that Franck Barresi wasn't comfortable. He was saying ‘I don't know what I'm doing here.’" Barresi only spoke to Dadak and shunned the company of the others.

After several days of talks in Banjul, an agreement was signed to sell arms to the Gambia and Dadak was paid a sum equal to $100,000 U.S dollars in fees, though his partners allege that the promised profits from the arms deal to the Gambia never materalised.

Richard Jreissati, one of the Lebanese businessmen who went with Dadak to the Gambia in 2012 told reporters: "I mean, everything he said was lies. The big enigma for me, is why all of this happened?"

Both Jreissati and Carbou stated in interviews that Dadak appeared to be friendly with senior executives at Bumar and Wegrzyn was his most important patron.

As a young man, he was known for frequenting the posh 16th arrondissement of Paris and tony clubs in the south of France as he sought to maintain a flashy lifestyle.

One man who knew him stated: "At 25, Dadak was already driving a Ferrari.

Dadak maintains his innocence, telling a Spanish court in 2018: "I am being made to pass for a Pablo Escobar, but I am nothing and I am not charged with drug or arms trafficking".

In 2018, the Times referred him as one of Europe's leading arms dealers"

Dadak was born in Paris, the son of Polish immigrants.

Through Dadak grew up in Paris, he also holds Polish citizenship.

Dadak's father was an engineer, a graduate of the Warsaw University of Technology while his mother was a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts.

Dadak grew up in an upper-middle-class family in the 18th arrondissement.