Unmasking Visegrád24: Tracing the People, Money, and Political Connections

Tadeusz Michrowski (FRONTSTORY.pl)
Illustration: YouTube 2025-10-02

Investigations Our Investigations

On X/Twitter, Visegrád24 became famous for its anti-Muslim and anti-migration stance as well as waves of disinformation. A recent report by the Centre for Information Integrity in Africa (CINIA) brings to light people, funding and political actors tied to their Central Europe-based but international network.

What does a multimillion Polish state-owned development fund have in common with claims of white genocide in South Africa, extreme right-wing misinformation in Central Europe, or pro-Israeli propaganda?

That may sound like the start of a lousy joke, one that doesn’t get better or funnier when the answer turns out to be: “A Catholic physicist-cyclist.”

Rise Against the Mainstream

Visegrád24 entered the European social media scene with a boom. Founded in 2020, it quickly built massive reach, mixing factual reporting with disinformation and outright fake news. Some of it was rather harmless — like the supposed ban of PornHub in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. Other pieces of “news” were more charged, such as branding pro-Palestinian protests as “pro-Hamas”, or manipulating information about the number of migrants in the UK. 

By 2025, Visegrád24 had become one of the most popular Eastern and Central European Twitter/X-based media. Currently, it has 1.4 million followers on X, over 125,000 subscribers on YouTube ,and a brand strong enough to deliver exclusive interviews with a number of public figures, including Poland’s former prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki.

Meanwhile, the network continues to grow. It already operates a separate Spanish-language account and has a new semi-franchise: Middle East 24, which is gaining momentum promoting the Israeli government’s message on the country’s action in Gaza and the Israel-Iran war. 

After the start of the war with Iran, Visegrád24’s messaging amplified. Among other things, it claimed that Iranian military officers wanted to defect and sought contact with the Pahlavis, the family of the last shah, contrary to credible reports. Visegrád24 also platformed figures from the UAE who offered “warnings” about “muslimization” in the West. (Intelligence services of the UAE have previously been proven to finance anti-Muslim disinformation campaigns in Europe.)

In all these ventures, Visegrád24 follows the same tactics: hard-core anti-Muslim rhetoric, claims that Western countries are collapsing, a strong pro-Israeli propaganda, and a steady stream of sensationalism and misinformation.

Interaction network visualisation of @visegrad24’s ‘footprint’ on X based on 212,791 posts (1% sample) by 144,439 unique X users between 1 May 2024 – 21 May 2025 – as in the Centre’s for Information Integrity in Africa report.

A Group of Friends

Behind Visegrád24 is the self-described “group of friends.”

The apparent leader is Stefan Tompson, a Polish-British individual with South African roots. Tompson began his media career by creating patriotic videos, petitioning for an end to fining for driving through a red light, as well as promoting the “white genocide” narrative in Poland. The latter is a conspiracy theory claiming that white Afrikaners in South Africa are being mistreated in ways similar to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish population of Volhynia in the 1940s by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

That long-running campaign had its big moment when US President Donald Trump publicly claimed that South Africa was allowing the extermination of its white citizens. This led to the meeting between Donald Trump and South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

As reported by the Centre for Information Integrity in Africa and local media, Tompson met in South Africa with Sebastiaan Jooste, known on X as “Twatterbaas” — notorious for racist content, hate speech, and false information. His posts have been amplified by Elon Musk, and his actions even drew a response from the South African government. While Visegrád24 claims to be based in Poland, many of its regular writers are  South African, including for example, conservative advocate for Cape Independence Willem Petzer and Heike Claudia du Toit.

In March 2025, Tompson participated in The International Conference on Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem focusing on “progressivism falling captive to antisemitism.” 

Visegrád24 co-founder, Stefan Tompson, pictured with Sebastiaan Jooste.

Another relevant figure, whose role was first reported by OkoPress, is Adam Starzyński: “a journalist who formerly worked for the English-language program PolandDaily, produced by TV Republika; and the owner of the now-banned @BasedPoland account, which spread extremely conservative content on Twitter/X.” 

But what about the Catholic physicist-cyclist?

Polish-American Venture Capitalist, Physicist, Cyclist and Catholic

CINIA has also identified another important person in the network behind Visegrád24: Dominik Andrzejczuk. On his X account, Andrzejczuk describes himself as “Physicist – Cyclist- Catholic – Husband – Quantum & Deep Tech VC Investor.” Even though this résumé is already impressive, CINIA’s research suggests his activities go further.

Andrzejczuk’s rich resume even includes a co-production of movies, including a 2019 documentary “No Safe Spaces,” panned by critics for its incoherent message and conservative bias around free speech in American academia. He also wrote extensively on the Israeli rise in quantum computing and co-manages a fund with a Canadian resident of the UAE.

Visegrád24 may be a side project for him, but it follows similar lines as those already tested by Andrzejczuk. And as it grows, it provides a useful ally. Especially now as – together with partner media outlets – it expands globally, hijacking narratives from Argentina through South Africa to the Middle East.

In Argentina, Visegrád24 supports the right-wing libertarian president, Javier Millei; in South Africa, it played a significant role in perpetuating the disinformation of “white genocide” picked up by Donald Trump; and in the Middle East, it platformed views claiming that “Iranians support Israel” during war between the two countries.

According to the report, what should be considered the parent organisation or holding body behind Visegrád24 is a US-based section 501(c)(3) tax exempt, non-profit entity headquartered in Pennsylvania – The Intermarium Foundation. When a visitor clicks on Visegrad24’s bright-red “Donate” button (“Help us keep the fight alive. Your donations are 100% deductible”), the initiative is revealed to be “powered by the Intermarium Foundation. 

On his LinkedIn profile, Dominik Andrzejczuk calls himself the founder of Intermarium Foundation, serving as its director from February 2023 until February 2025. Although his current relationship with the foundation is unclear, the official organization data still lists its headquarters at an address previously owned by Andrzejczuk himself and, in 2025, by one of his relatives.

That was not Andrzejczuk’s first intersection with Visegrád24. Since 2021, he has co-owned Black Horse Advisors, a company registered in Poland. It never filed financial statements — but his partner there was Visegrád24’s Stefan Tompson. Andrzejczuk also authored at least six articles published at Visegrád24 – all of which now appear deleted (but could still be found in archived versions). 

Land of Opportunities

Andrzejczuk built his personal brand around his past in Silicon Valley and then his return to Poland to look for opportunities. He seems to have found them. Since 2019, he has been co-managing Atmos Ventures, a venture capital company operating within the framework of the Polish Development Fund (PFR).

The PFR is a state-owned financial group tasked with supporting the development of Polish businesses. It invests both state and EU-sourced money to boost companies that can benefit the Polish economy (with the aim of profiting from it).

Its venture capital arm focuses on early-stage co-investments. One such vehicle is the above-mentioned Atmos Ventures, managed by Andrzejczuk alongside a Canadian resident of the UAE and a French citizen residing in Cyprus.

Atmos Ventures invests in high-tech companies, including firms developing chemical synthesis solutions and quantum computers — Andrzejczuk’s academic field. The vast majority of the money Andrzejczuk and his partners manage comes from the Polish state. While they co-invest their own funds, they also receive management fees.

A senior PFR officer and a spokesperson comprehensively described the recruitment process for funds like Atmos Ventures. Before being entrusted with public money, managers are strictly scrutinized to make sure they are capable of providing results. Both of Andrzejczuk’s co-partners are high profile individuals, who claim to “advise the UK Government” and raise hundreds of millions of dollars for their companies. 

PFR, however, does not monitor or restrict managers’ external activities — such as media projects or private ventures. That appears to be the case with Andrzejczuk, whose involvement with Visegrád24 falls outside PFR’s oversight. As CINIA notes: “As of now, Atmos Ventures manages a portfolio worth approximately 100 million PLN. Should the investments succeed, Andrzejczuk and his co-founders stand to earn significant performance-based compensation—potentially making them millionaires through the fund’s success (if they are not ones yet). These gains are a direct result of the Polish state’s support and designed incentives.”

Andrzejczuk’s articles for Visegrád24 add to the picture: Among other subjects, he wrote about migration in the UK and profiled the anti-migrant views of controversial Law and Justice MEP Dominik Tarczyński. There is an irony to that. As quoted in the CINIA report: “I was born in Poland, but my family emigrated when I was less than a year old. (…) Growing up, I lived in a Polish neighborhood in Philadelphia. My parents and I resided in the US without legal status for six years until they were fortunate to secure green cards through the 1995 lottery.”

In response to VSquare.org questions, Andrzejczuk claims that politics was “a side project”, while Visegrád24 was unrelated to activities at Atmos Ventures. One of Atmos’ companies was recently sold for over 1 bln USD, making an enormous profit for the Polish Development Fund.

He also says that “[he] was removed from the Board of the Intermarium Foundation in February of this year”. But in July 2025 Andrzejczuk filed and signed documents for The Intermarium Foundation in Florida as a CEO and treasurer of the entity.

According to Andrzejczuk, the Polish company he co-owned with Tompson was operating in the private equity transactions but has been inactive since 2023. 

“I continue to support anti-migration policies in both the US and in Poland. My family lived in the US without any papers for several years but pursued legal immigration avenues in order to acquire residency and citizenship. They were productive members of society (…).”

Independent Until Proven Otherwise

Visegrád24 has built its brand on being an alternative to mainstream media. In 2022, the Polish state sponsored a media campaign, Friends of Poland, with 110,000 PLN (€24,000) through the Patriotic Foundation and the Institute for the Heritage of National Thought. The latter, supposedly devoted to historical policy, was described by the Polish weekly Polityka as the Law and Justice party’s tool for misusing funds.

Network of connections within Visegrad24-Middle East 24 network.

The Friends of Poland media campaign consisted of several two-minute films posted on, among other places, the social media accounts of Stefan Tompson and Visegrád24. Of the two companies that sent invoices to the campaign, one was Bracia Tompson S.C — a civil law partnership in which Stefan Tompson participates as a sole proprietor (self-employed). It operates in video production.

An even bigger case was reported by OkoPress. In 2023, over 2.4 million PLN (€530,000) was given by the Polish state to the ActionLife Foundation for its “Media Center.” It turned out to be a hoax: both the promised ceenews.org page and its supposed journalists were generated by AI. ActionLife was later forced to return the funds.

The project’s agreement with the Chancellery of the Polish Prime Minister did not mention Visegrád24, but that name later appeared in the post-project report as a “social media” partner. Curiously, the ceenews.org page did not mention Visegrád24’s handles.

Caption: UP: CeeNews interview published on its YouTube page in December 2023, and Visegrad24 interview published on its YouTube in July 2025. Different lights do not cover the same curtain, chairs, microphones, and table with knots in the same spots.

The agreement explicitly required that the content be marked as state-sponsored. While ceenews.org included such disclaimers, no such information appeared on Visegrád24 — but  Visegrád24 social media statistics were used in the final report. Based on its interior, the studio used by ceenews.org appears to be the same studio where two years later Visegrád24 recorded its interview with former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Tadeusz Michrowski

Tadeusz Michrowski is an editor and fact-checker at VSquare and FRONTSTORY.PL. He is an award-winning journalist and writer.