On top of earlier charges of abuse of office, Biro is now suspected of having embezzled 87 million forints (EUR 217,000), KNYF said in a statement.

Biro is believed to have hired a foreign company to set up and run a representative office for the Integrity Authority in Brussels, whereas his organisation was not authorised to have a foreign representation, the statement said, adding that the foreign contractor had received a sum equal to 17 million forints.

Furthermore, Biro signed two more contracts with the same company in April last year, one for the provision of consultancy services, and the other for lobbying activities not related to the authority's profile, the statement said.

So far, the contractor has received a total 45 million forints under the two agreements, KNYF said.

The prosecutor's office also established that Biro had employed a friend and paid him a monthly 2 million forints to contribute to the curriculum of a planned Integrity Academy, the activities of which were not connected to his authority.

Protecting Hungary's Election Integrity: Inside the Sovereignty Protection Office

Hungary's new Sovereignty Protection Office will be responsible for ensuring the transparency of the upcoming local and European Parliament elections as "its first major task", Tamás Lánczi, appointed to head the new body, has said.

The new body will aim to “protect the country’s economic, cultural, communication and political identity and independence,” Lánczi told public television, adding that “the office will not be an authority … having primarily analytic and fact-finding tasks.”

The office “will not launch probes or impose sanctions,” he added. The office will cooperate with other agencies and “make possible violations public and report to the respective state organs,” he said, adding that the office could “call the attention of lawmakers to any legal deficiency or the need for an authority to act”.

For example, Lánczi said recipients of illegal party financing could face imprisonment but “the punishment will not be imposed by the office but by the respective state authority”.

The new office will be tasked with “preventing foreign attempts to influence the elections … and if it sees signs of such activities, it will alert the authorities,” he said.

MTI Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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