Under the indictment a leading official of the French company gave millions of euros in bribes to an unidentified person or persons who were in a position to influence the outcome of public procurement proceedings begun by Budapest public transport company BKV in June 2005 for the procurement of vehicles for the M2 and M4 metro lines, the latter still under construction at the time.

The corrupt official’s associates provided assistance in concluding three fictitious contracts involving fictitious consultants and Danish and Austrian companies, to a total value of €8.5 million. 

The defendants are two Hungarians, one Austrian and one American.Two other persons were questioned as suspects but have not been charged.

EU anti-fraud office OLAF began investigating the matter on February 2, 2012, as much of the funding for the metro line came from the EU.

Its recommendation arrived at the Prosecutor General’s Office in December 2016.

The Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office conducted an investigation into corruption related to the delivery contracts of metro carriages, while an investigation launched on January 23, 2017 into misuse of funds and other crimes related to other contracts for the M4 metro line was transferred to the Capital Prosecutor’s Office after separating the part related to the Alstom contracts.

MTI Photo: Máthé Zoltán