It is difficult to count how many corruption scandals have erupted in the capital since the left wing led by Gergely Karácsony took control of Budapest in 2019.
It looks like the corruption cases that have been in the spotlight in recent years, and of which Magyar Nemzet has compiled a compilation, seem to be burying the left in the capital under themselves.
When it comes to corruption cases, it is enough to think that many cases reach the level of big politics, a good example of which is the parking scandal in Zugló.
Real socialist bigwigs were also accused in that case, including Csaba Horváth, the former mayor of Zugló, Csaba Tóth, a strong man of the local socialists, member of parliament Zsolt Molnár and former minister Ferenc Baja. According to the crown witness of the case, the opposition politicians obtained a total of HUF 300 million in bribe money. Zsolt Fuzik, SYS IT Services Kft. he was a former influential colleague who was suspended by the NAV staff in 2021 in a tax fraud case.
However, the man offered a deal and told in detail, in a lie detector-checked testimony, how and how much corruption money flowed to the politicians mentioned above.
In Fuzik's testimony, he also touched on a mysterious, "invisible" person for a long time, a certain Z. Zsolt, who is considered a key figure in the capital's park maintenance business. Pannon Park Forest Kft. its former owner was arrested in March, and the tax authorities suspect him and his associates of creating a criminal organization for selling invoices, budget fraud and other crimes in a criminal organization causing a particularly large financial loss. The procedure is related to the NAV campaign in which, among others, a rare Ferrari and a Lamborghini were seized during the winding up of an invoice factory. One million euros was found in the trunk of one of the cars.
In addition to Fuzik, Zsolt Z also established relationships with left-wing politicians and municipalities. It is known that Molnár has had a very good relationship with Zsolt Z for decades, their wives also had a joint business years ago.
The affected districts include, among others, Újbuda, Zugló, II. district, Újpest and Óbuda as well. According to press information, the Central Investigative General Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the corruption case of the mayor of Óbuda and his associates, also took a contract for park maintenance/gardening work from the municipality during one of the investigations.
The public first encountered the Óbuda corruption case a few years ago in Anonymous' recordings.
The masked figure, for example, published the hidden camera footage of what is believed to be corruption money being counted in a car. In the video, you can clearly see how the sums were put in paper bags. According to the information of the masked figure, III. it was money redistributed from the orders of the district municipality.
The first suspects in the case were arrested in March, and the number of those involved expanded over time to seventeen. The suspicions are about overpriced and fictitious contracts and the redistribution of hundreds of millions in bribes. The scandal swept away mayor László Kiss and his recently resigned deputy, Csaba Czeglédy. Both of them were arrested and suspected of official bribery, among other things.
Anonymous leaked information not only about the criminal case in Óbuda, but also about the spicy details of the so-called City Hall scandal. From the audio materials published by the masked figure and other publicized information, it became clear that they wanted to sell the City Hall in exchange for a multi-billion dollar "commission". Moreover, based on the recorded conversations, the picture emerged that in the capital, in addition to the sale plan of the City Hall, a well-defined circle specialized in real estate sales operated a "commission system", i.e. a bribe system.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NNI), which investigates suspicions of influence-peddling and influence-peddling, has so far questioned four suspects. One of them is Zsolt Berki, who can be considered a key figure in the corruption scandal. According to the data that has been made public so far, the man, who in principle operates without any official position, contacted several business circles known in Hungary in connection with the City Hall project and several other real estate transactions in Budapest.
The criminal case known as the Lánchíd scandal and the capital's invoice factory reaches all the way to the Budapest city government.
This case started with the failure of an invoice factory, behind which was an ex-lawyer: Vig Mór. It later turned out that between November 2020 and July 2022, i.e. during the Christmas period, A-Híd Zrt., which is renovating the Chain Bridge. He transferred HUF 1.4 billion to Vig Mór's company, Sunstrike Hungary Kft. HUF 900 million of this amount was transferred to 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. There are several suspects in Vig Mór's hallmark investigation of invoice sales.
The real turning point in the case occurred after an unknown person sent a letter to the former government commissioner for accountability, Gyula Budai. The letter stated that Mór Vig went to the office of the security company located at the Mammut shopping center to "account" for the sums pumped out of the Lánchíd investment and then withdrawn in the form of cash. According to the letter writer, the "settlement" took place between the head of the company and the ex-lawyer. According to Budai, the security company is also related to A-Híd Zrt., which is carrying out the renovation, due to family ties.
But what makes the whole story even more suspicious is that the letter writer knows that significant sums of money went to the left wing in the capital.
The former government commissioner for accountability filed a report after all this, and the National Bureau of Investigation 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, whose staff also detained Vig Mór in November 2023.
Cover photo: Gergely Kárácsony and Csaba Horváth
Source: MTI/Zoltán Máthé
