Former minister Miklós Seszták arrested in Volánbusz corruption case
The investigative judge of the Budapest Central District Court has ordered the arrest of Miklós Seszták, former national development minister. The NVVH is investigating him on suspicion of accepting unlawful advantage worth more than 11 billion forints.
Seszták Miklós arrested in Volánbusz corruption case
The investigative judge of the Budapest Central District Court ordered the arrest of Miklós Seszták, former national development minister, on Wednesday – announced the spokesperson of the Metropolitan Court. According to 24.hu's reporting, the KDNP parliamentary representative is being investigated by the National Asset Recovery and Asset Protection Authority (NVVH) on suspicion of accepting official bribery.
Parliament suspended Seszták's parliamentary immunity on Monday. The politician himself requested that the parliament's immunity committee recommend the suspension to the representatives. Following the decision, Seszták went personally to the Central Investigation Prosecutor's Office to give a statement, where he was subsequently taken into custody.
According to the statement of NVVH chairman Anna Unger, Seszták is the first person taken into custody by the recently established authority.
Immediately before his detention, the politician told 24.hu that he was convinced that the objective conditions for his arrest did not exist in his case. When asked whether he feared pre-trial detention nonetheless, he replied: "it's in the cards," but he trusts the Hungarian justice system.
The allegation: 11 billion forints obtained unlawfully
The investigation examines Seszták's period as minister, his activities between June 2014 and May 2018. The Ministry of National Development at that time oversaw Hungarian National Asset Management Ltd (MNV), and the MNV exercised ownership rights over Volánbusz Ltd.
According to the allegation presented by the prosecutor's office, between 2015 and 2018, Seszták and Norbert Szivek, the then chief executive officer of MNV, obtained – through an intermediary – more than 11 billion forints in unlawful advantage from a representative of companies that had contractual relationships with Volánbusz. Norbert Szivek and billionaire Dániel Jellinek, also implicated in the case, were arrested earlier.
According to the prosecutor's office, a representative of a corporate group engaged in construction investments also offered Seszták this arrangement: in exchange for anticipated government contracts, they would return ten per cent of the individual investments' contractor fees to him through an intermediary.
Based on the evidence collected to date, the prosecutor's office considers it possible to establish seven instances of accepting official bribery committed by officials in senior positions who abused their official position, acting in conspiracy and for profit, as well as six instances of accepting bribery committed as an accomplice.
Background: Corruption investigation in Volán companies
The case leading to Seszták is preceded by a corruption and money laundering investigation affecting Volán companies. By early September, the National Investigation Office (NNI) had already questioned eight persons as suspects in the matter, which allegedly caused financial damage of approximately 10 billion forints. Two months earlier, a separate investigation team was established; house searches were conducted at the suspects' residences, and documents, accounts, telephones and computers were seized.
According to the NNI's statement, as the former chief executive of MNV, Szivek possessed information which enabled assets derived from criminal activity to be invested in real estate and high-value cars through ostensible loan agreements and companies, or to be withdrawn in cash. Once the investigation brought to the attention of the authorities a person against whom the proceedings fell within the prosecutor's jurisdiction, the NNI began cooperation with the Central Investigation Prosecutor's Office.
Seszták's name had already emerged before the prosecutor's investigation. Businessman and civil investigative journalist Ferenc Galgóczy had previously claimed that a Volánbusz subcontractor made monthly corruption payments of 125 million forints, of which Seszták and Szivek could have been the possible beneficiaries. Galgóczy also said that he himself paid monthly "protection money" of 20,000 euros through an intermediary so that his former company could retain its ground handling assignment at Budapest Ferenc Liszt International Airport. Seszták denied this.
Asset recovery: nearly three billion forints secured
In parallel with the investigation, a significant asset recovery proceeding is also taking place. The Asset Recovery Office of the National Investigation Office of the Emergency Services is, at the request of the Central Investigation Prosecutor's Office, seizing and securing assets worth nearly three billion forints from one of the suspects in the case: real estate worth 286.5 million forints, a car worth more than 6 million forints, and other assets worth 2.7 billion forints.
Seszták denies allegations, refuses to resign from his mandate
Miklós Seszták consistently denies the prosecutor's allegations. In an interview with 24.hu conducted before his detention, he stated that he had committed no crime and could not make sense of the allegations concerning the transfer of several billion forints: "A quantity of money this large is incomprehensible in physical terms."
According to Seszták, the prosecutor's office may have reached him because someone made a plea deal with them. When asked who could have given incriminating testimony against him, he did not name anyone, but indicated he was thinking of a person "who knew everything" – then clarified that he was referring to the person who led Volánbusz and was familiar with the legal transactions. The former minister also claimed that he did not know the companies that had contractual relationships with Volánbusz and their representatives implicated in the case.
Despite the proceedings, Seszták does not plan to resign from his parliamentary mandate: "I do not intend to resign, I am innocent. There is no reason to."
Source: Google News HU — Crime (hu)