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Press release22 December 2020European Anti-Fraud Office

Hungary: Indictment in the case of the failed hotel investment in Kistelek

Partner's press release

22/12/2020

The Chief Public Prosecution Office of County Csongrád-Csanád has submitted the indictment against a woman and two men who received a HUF 822 million (approx. EUR 2.650.000) subvention from the Hungarian and EU budget sources using false own-resource certification. The European Anti-Fraud Office had issued a recommendation in this matter as well.

In the summer of 2012, the National Development Agency published a call for applications entitled "Development of health tourism services in the convergence regions", the aim of which was, inter alia, to develop health services not financed by the National Health Insurance Fund (OEP). The cohabiting man and woman submitted an application in September 2012 to build a hotel and a medical center in the Kistelek administrative area on behalf of the company they managed. The aim of the application submitted by the defendants was to provide a service available in one place, offering 15 different physical and mental treatments, and a total of 76 accommodations and in-patient beds would have been established in the medical center.

According to the tender documentation, the total cost would have been HUF 1.2 billion. 70 percent of this sum, HUF 822 million was marked by the defendants as a non-refundable subvention, whilst the amount of own resources was indicated by the defendants as HUF 364 million. The existence of the own-resource was confirmed by the defendants using false statements, including a false loan agreement drafted by their accomplice, an attorney from Szeged, and a certificate of deposit stating that the full amount of the own-resource was paid in the lawyer's deposit account. In reality the defendants did not possess the amount of the own-resource.

The European Regional Development Fund granted HUF 698 million, while the Hungarian state provided HUF 124 million for the project. The defendants sold the subventioned company shortly after the start of the construction works. The new owner spent the amount of the subvention on the investment, however, due to the lack of own-resource, was unable to complete it, the construction was stopped by the end of 2016. The Ministry of National Economy withdrew from the contract in April 2017, reclaiming the full amount of the subvention paid.

The defendants caused a financial loss of HUF 822 million to the state budget. The Chief Public Prosecution Office has charged the three defendants with the felony of budgetary fraud causing particularly substantial financial loss and with the misdemeanor of use of a forged private document.

In the course of the investigation OLAF - the European Anti-Fraud Office- issued a judicial recommendation, the findings of which were used.

The guilt of the defendants will be decided by the Court of Justice of Szeged.

Read the original press release (in Hungarian)

Details

Publication date
22 December 2020
Author
European Anti-Fraud Office
News type
Partner's press release