The bank headed by György Matolcsy has spent tens of billions of public money on the renovation of the Postal Palace without knowing much about the background of the project. According to an internal report, the work was beautiful, but “it did not meet the criteria of austerity”.

According to an internal document obtained by Direkt36 the state-owned Eximbank identified several risks related to a Budapest real estate development project. Nevertheless, it decided to financially support it with a loan worth millions of euros.

The police started its investigation after Direkt36 had exposed that the construction project was given to a company that provided false references in the bidding process.

Cecília Rogán chose to rent an office for her company from a businessman close to two hotel investors. Her husband, the minister used to have good official connections to them.

One of the defendants is the former notary of Budapest’s District 5.

The municipality hired again the company, which won a previous tender through false claims.

The company needed to show that they had done similar construction in the past so they brought a reference from Uruguay. But it was a lie.

The court cited the lack of evidence as the reason for its ruling.

The phone calls played in court show the extraordinarily close relationship between two defendants of the corruption trial, a former notary and a businessman.

The trial of the alleged District 5 corruption cases has started with the testimonies of the defendants. What emerged is a story of how a businessman with a wide network of contacts built an extremely close relationship with one of the most senior public officials of the district.