Fidesz group leader Lajos Kósa said that years ago the UK’s Serious Fraud Office launched investigations into four Alstom executives for alleged corruption.

The SFO alleged that they had transferred 2.3 million euros to Budapest transport company BKV for preferential treatment in the bids to supply the carriages for the city’s fourth metro line.

Meanwhile, it was revealed that companies associated with Medgyessy were paid nearly 600,000 euros (HUF 186m) by Alstom, Kósa said.

He cited the SFO as saying that Alstom had attempted to hide the “bribe monies” with the use of “fake” consulting contracts. Kósa said it was strange that it had recently emerged that 60 million forints of that money ended up on the bank account of Medgyessy’s wife.

The question remains, he said, where the missing 1.7 million euros had gone. Kósa said the Budapest city council had filed a criminal complaint over suspected corruption surrounding the Alstom contracts.

Earlier this week, the daily Magyar Idők reported that Alstom had transferred 259,000 euros in consulting fees on the basis of a contract with AssistConsult, indirectly owned by Medgyessy and his wife, on March 30, 2007, and another 338,000 euros on January 22, 2008.

Medgyessy later confirmed the report to news portal index.hu, but said the paper’s motivation for publishing it was to draw attention away from the dispute surrounding the central bank’s foundations.

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MTI photo: Czeglédi Zsolt