Géza Fazekas told the press Mengyi was suspected of an attempted misuse of public funds and abuse of the powers of his office. The first may be punished by 5-10 years in prison, the other 2-8 years.

The spokesperson affirmed that there are five suspects in the case, none of them members of the public. Two are in preliminary custody, three under house arrest.

Shortly afterwards, Mengyi issued a statement through the Hungarian State News Agency MTI:

“I will cooperate with the authorities fully and ask Parliament to lift my immunity in order to clarify the reality as soon as possible,” he wrote.

Mengyi denies any wrongdoing.

Abuse of power

The scandal broke at the beginning of August when Hungarian print weekly 168óra published an article based on eye-witness testimony and official wire-taps accusing Mengyi and other high-ranking government officials of abusing their power for personal gain.

According to the prosecutor’s office, Mengyi said he would use his influence as a lawmaker to ensure that a program devoted to social co-operatives received HUF 500 million (USD 1.83 million) of European Union funds when it was launched.

The prosecutors said Mengyi had asked for HUF 5 million (USD 18 200) as a “constitutional expense” to ensure that the co-operatives would receive the funds and for a further HUF 5 million after they got the funding.

“The parties involved had no intention of implementing the objective of the application,” a statement by the prosecutors said. “On the contrary, their intention was to use part of the awarded funds to boost their private wealth.”

Under the scheme developed by the suspects, prosecutors said the social co-operatives involved would have received just 10 percent of the funds awarded. The rest would be paid as kickbacks to the suspected ringleaders.

The prosecutors said in the end no funds were lost under the programme, because applications were rejected for formal errors and missing criteria. Mengyi had also paid back the HUF 5 million through an intermediary, the prosecutors said.
Raid planned

In a separate article, 168óra reported that last July investigators of the National Tax Office (Nemzeti Adóhivatal – NAV) planned to raid an Italian restaurant in Tiszaújváros where Mengyi received the HUF 5 million in a nylon bag. Although the investigators were videotaping the events and knew exactly what was going on, they did not get the necessary permits to surprise the politician.

Last Monday, undersecretary from the Office of the Prime Minister Nándor Csepreghy, who formerly served as deputy undersecretary for development policies at the Office of the Prime Minister, appeared on HírTV to announce that the Office of the Prime Minister was launching an internal investigation into the matter.

Csepreghy has also been implicated in the scandal.

Source: Budapest Beacon

Republished with permission

MTI Photo: Bruzák Noémi