He excels in conspiracy theories, but the mayor still refuses to answer substantive questions, even though the Budapest City Hall is slowly being buried under the billion-dollar corruption surrounding the renovation of the Chain Bridge and the scandalous case of the capital invoice factory connected to it.
Gergely Karácsony presented a fairy-tale story about the defense money paid to the government on Márton Gulyás' program Partizán the other day, instead of giving a substantive explanation of one of the left's biggest corruption scandals, the case of the capital's invoice factory connected to the overpriced renovation of the Chain Bridge, which reached the City Hall.
To put it mildly, Gulyás cannot be accused of right-wing bias, but even he could not do without addressing the above scandal for at least a few minutes during the interview with Kárácsonny.
Karácsony immediately started talking about "bullshit" and then presented his own, "alternative explanation": it is essentially a confusing story about a Fidesz press conference, which, according to him, could have been interpreted as a threat by A-Híd, which is working on the renovation of the Lánchíd, and that is why the first references to it started a few days later in the can be said to be a key figure in the invoice business of Vig Mór's company.
Well, to quote the mayor, this is really bullshit and can be easily refuted, but more on that later.
First, it is worth returning for a moment to Márton Gulyás, who claimed that he spent a good few hours trying to understand what the case was about, yet he spoke on the show that no evidence or even information was found that would prove the involvement of the left wing in the capital.
We help: Gulyás only kept quiet one of the most important facts, that an insider came forward to Gyula Budai and revealed how one and a half billion were pumped out of the Lánchíd project,
which Mór Vig and a friend took in cash, and then "settled" with these sums to the head of a security company found at Mammut, and from there a good part of the sums ended up in the hands of the left wing in Budapest.
The press also found out that the security company is Árgus-Security Vagyonvédelmi Kft. One of its owners is Endre Zoltán Apáthy, and his father is none other than Endre Apáthy, whose family interests include A-Híd Zrt.
Therefore, if the insider's letter writer's claims are true, the money "saved" from the Chain Bridge investment could have returned to the ownership of A-Híd, which is renovating the bridge, from which the sums, according to the letter writer, ended up at the Budapest City Hall.
After that, Budai filed a complaint, and the National Investigation Agency (NNI) ordered an investigation on suspicion of official bribery. The police finally handed the case over to NAV, which has been investigating the invoice factory case for months on suspicion of budget fraud, which also detained Mór Vig last November.
By the way, you should know about Mór Vig that he is the main character of the invoice factory that reaches the capital, and in the proceedings against him, the tax authorities searched the house of Vig's good friend, a lawyer named Dániel Hegedüs, and also at A-Híd Zrt., which is renovating the Chain Bridge.
About the bridge renovation, only that the Karácsonys issued a new public procurement for it after the change of power in 2019, and the winner A-Híd won with an offer five billion more expensive than what it would have cost to complete the work under the previous city administration.
Memorable: According to an audio recording, one of Bajnai's confidants said that the reason for the increase in price was corruption, since significant sums of money from the project went into the pockets of left-wing politicians.
Returning to the house searches, they may have taken place partly because of suspicious connections: according to information published in the press, between November 2020 and July 2022, A-Híd transferred HUF 1.4 billion to Vig's company, Sunstrike Hungary Kft. Nine hundred million forints were transferred from this amount to Mór Vig's private account and to his lawyer's escrow account. According to the suspicion, the transfers to the accounts linked to Vig Mór typically took place on the same days as the days on which the funds from A-Híd Zrt. arrived at Sunstrike Kft., and the amounts were withdrawn in cash from the accounts within a short time.
In January 2022, Mór Vig was barred from practicing law due to a final judgment, which necessitated a change of strategy.
After that, Hegedüst was involved in the transactions, who transferred the remaining amount arriving at Sunstrike Hungary Kft. to his own lawyer's escrow account, and then withdrew approximately five hundred million forints in cash from there.
The above dates and data were also confirmed by the ordered Kehi investigation, the partial report of which revealed suspicious financial transactions between A-Híd Zrt., which is renovating the Chain Bridge, and Vig Mór, the invoice manufacturer.
The document also crushes the defense of the Karácsony family: the capital's left-liberal leadership has argued that there is no coincidence in time between the renovation and the dubious financial transactions.
However, Kehi clearly pointed out that the entire HUF 1.5 billion was transferred from A-Híd to the ex-lawyer firm of the invoice manufacturer during the public procurement procedure, and HUF 1.3 billion after the conclusion of the construction contract.
At this point, it is worth revisiting the Christmas story, because according to the report, A-Híd Zrt. made the first payment to Vig Mór's company, Sunstrike Hungary Kft., a week after the breakdown of the offers received by BKK (28 October 2020). in the amount of HUF 71,648,320. That is, after the BKK, which was the midwife of the investment, could already know who won the project for the renovation of the Lánchíd, the winner had not yet been formally announced and a contract had not been concluded.
This may therefore be the solution to why the flow of money started at the beginning of November 2020, and not at the time according to the mayor's conspiracy theory, but the final word will of course be given by the authority and, if the proceedings reach that point, by the court.
Cover photo: Mayor Gergely Karácsony (b) hands over one of the spanners of the Chain Bridge to bridge master János Fazekas at the handover of the renovated bridge at the Buda bridgehead of the Chain Bridge
Source: MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry
