The criminal organization obtained HUF 16.5 billion from the state budget through an institution maintenance network established by a Hungarian church, and then laundered more than HUF 11 billion of that for their own purposes.

The Békés County Prosecutor's Office brought charges against eight people for budget fraud and money laundering committed in a criminal organization. The criminal organization obtained HUF 16.5 billion from the state budget, and then laundered more than HUF 11 billion of it for their own purposes, the Békés County Prosecutor's Office announced in a statement on Friday.

According to the indictment, between 2014 and 2022, the two leaders of the criminal organization - with the cooperation of six of their associates - illegally claimed the normative and church supplementary support provided by the Hungarian state for social purposes through the institution maintenance network established by a Hungarian church.

Within the framework of the organizational network they created, the defendants on the one hand created the appearance of operating a soup kitchen catering to large crowds, and on the other hand, they used the church's additional support for social care on pretend religious activities. The use of the money was confirmed by documents with untrue content.

With the help of their partners, they carried out various financial operations in the amount of over 11 billion forints: they made covert transfers and large cash withdrawals using foreign bank accounts and business companies.

Both leaders of the criminal organization directly enriched themselves with almost 2.5 billion forints, of which one of them gave more than 600 million forints and the other nearly 1 billion forints to their relatives in the form of bank accounts, real estate and high-value movables.

As a result of the work of the Békés County Department of the Southern Great Plains Criminal Directorate of NAV and the Békés County Prosecutor's Office, during the investigation, it was possible to secure real estate, bank accounts and chattels worth more than HUF 14 billion in order to reduce the financial disadvantage to the state, they wrote in the announcement.

MTI

Cover image: Illustration / Photo: MTI/Zoltán Mihádák