Bálint Szabó, a former socialist politician and member of the local government of Szeged, may have tried to extort money from waterfowl breeders as a commission. This is not the first scandalous case for Szabo, whose past is rather confusing, reports Origó.
Ex-socialist Bálin Szabó would have tried to take advantage of the farmers to grab a part of the agricultural subsidies due to them. Back in February of this year, news appeared that employees of Szabó's company, Likvid Kontrol Kft., who is a politician in Szeged as a municipal representative, called farmers by phone to inquire how much support they were entitled to, and offered that their company would submit the claims to government offices for a ten percent success fee.
The Szabós may have attempted to defraud part of the farmers' money not long after, at a demonstration in Mélykút
Minister István Nagy assured the protesting waterfowl farmers that the government has allocated HUF 1.9 billion for the payment of agricultural subsidies due to them.
In connection with the case, the possibility also arises that Szabó could have participated in the organization of the demonstration in order to gain a significant profit later, reads the Origó article.
In the end, the Ministry of Agriculture prevented the farmers from being deceived, when they announced in a statement that there was no need for mediation to transfer the subsidies. As written:
To use the subsidies, producers submit their subsidy and payment requests directly to the Hungarian State Treasury. The application and payment of the subsidies takes place directly between the beneficiary and the Hungarian State Treasury, the subsidy procedure does not require the participation of an intermediary or third party.
More details: Hungarian Nation
Featured image: szegedma.hu
