NAV investigators searched 33 locations and seized a lot of cash, documents, and electronic data.
The National Tax and Customs Office is also investigating three criminal cases in connection with the invoice factory in the capital - it was revealed from the official decision obtained by Magyar Nemzet
During the scandal that reached the City Hall led by Gergely Karácsony, the tax authority is also investigating suspicions of embezzlement, bribery and budget fraud.
More and more details are coming to light about the scandal of the capital invoice factory, which reached the City Hall, and is connected to the overpriced and suspected corruption of the Chain Bridge renovation. The threads of the scandal go back to the fall of 2019, when the left-liberal coalition led by Gergely Karácsony took control of Budapest.
The Karácsonys quickly stopped the Chain Bridge renovation tender concluded by István Tarlós on favorable terms and called for a new public procurement procedure. In the new tender, A-Híd Zrt. was again the winner, but strangely enough, they won with a bid five billion forints more expensive than what they would have paid for the work under Tarlós. In addition, the advance payment owed to the contractor was increased almost sixtyfold, to HUF 4.2 billion, while the fine was halved.
Bajnai's confidant may have known about the Lánchíd scandal
Many objected to the incomprehensible price increase, but the Karácsonys only responded with side talk. However, there were insiders who already knew exactly the reason for the price increase. This includes an old confidant of Gordon Bajnai, who spoke in an audio recording that the renovation of the Chain Bridge cost HUF five billion more because money was given back to important left-wing potentates.
The above conversation took place in the summer of 2021, when the Lánchíd funds were already flowing to Vig Mór's company, who is the brother of Dávid Vig, the director of Amnesty International Hungary. Mór Vig was detained .
NAV investigators searched 33 locations and seized a lot of cash, documents, and electronic data.
In the course of the investigation, the house of lawyer Dániel Hegedüs and A-Híd Zrt. were also searched.
Cash from public funds
It turned out that between November 2020 and July 2022, A-Híd transferred HUF 1.4 billion to Vig's company, of which HUF 900 million was transferred to Mór Vig's private account and then withdrawn in cash. In January 2022, Mór Vig was banned from practicing law, after which Dániel Hegedüs took over the money withdrawals.
The case took a turn when an unknown person sent a letter to Gyula Budai, in which he claimed that Mór Vig had settled the sums borrowed from the Lánchíd investment in the office of the security company located at the Mammut shopping center. The security company is Árgus-Security Vagyonvédelmi Kft., which is related to A-Híd Zrt.
According to the letter writer, significant sums of money from the bridge money went to the left wing in the capital.
The bribes may have gone to the City Hall
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 carried out it, from where the sums ended up in the Budapest City Hall, according to the letter writer.
The former government commissioner for accountability filed a report after all this, 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 since last year on suspicion of budget fraud, who also detained Mór Vig last November.
Cover image: MTI/Zsolt Szigetváry
