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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The two founders of a pyramid scheme in Poland have been sentenced to years in prison for cheating thousands of people out of their savings in one of the nation's biggest financial scandals, calculated at 200 million euros ($220 million).
A court in Gdansk sentenced Marcin P. to 15 years in prison and his wife, Katarzyna P., to 12 and a half years. They also were ordered Wednesday to pay fines that amount to tens of thousands of dollars.
The banks they ran, named Amber Gold, cheated some 19,000 investors out of over 850 million zlotys from 2009 until 2012.
Critics say Poland's government at the time, led by current European Union leader Donald Tusk, failed to warn people about the scam.
The case opened in 2016.
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