One of the best-kept secrets of János Lázár’s political career was what he was doing in Zurich on March 22 and 23, 2013.

In early 2014—while it was still an independent news outlet—the Origo news portal contacted the Prime Minister’s Office, which was headed by Lázár at the time, to request information about the politician’s several mysterious and exceptionally expensive trips abroad, including the one to Zurich. Lázár’s ministry refused to respond, and when an Origo staff member—the author of this article—filed a lawsuit to obtain the data, they still shared only a few pieces of less significant information about it.

Lázár was so determined not to reveal details about his trips that at one point he announced he would rather reimburse the budget for the travel expenses. Origo’s editorial staff also came under political pressure because of the case, which contributed to the highly controversial dismissal of then-editor-in-chief Gergő Sáling. A significant portion of the editorial staff resigned in protest, and the news portal later became part of the propaganda machine close to the Orbán government.

Now, the Tisza government, which took office this spring, has released information about the 2013 trip to Zurich. The government released an internal document to Direkt36 stating that Lázár met with a certain “Prof. Mangold” in the Swiss city and discussed potential collaborations with various Western European companies.

The name “Prof. Mangold” refers to Klaus Mangold, an influential German businessman well-connected in both European and Russian business circles. It had previously come to light—in part as a result of Direkt36’s investigations—that Mangold established contact with the Hungarian government in the early 2010s and later worked as an advisor to Orbán’s administration for several years. The internal document received from the current government is also a report prepared by Mangold’s company, Mangold Consulting GmbH.

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The government released the report after we asked them several questions over the summer about Lázár’s trips—questions to which we had not previously received answers. Bálint Ruff, Minister in Charge of the Prime Minister’s Office, also mentioned Lázár’s trips last week in an interview with Telex.

Banking, Software, Marketing

According to the disclosed report, Lázár discussed three topics with Mangold. One was cooperation with a bank named Rothschild, with which the German businessman had connections on multiple fronts. “[…] there was discussion of whether Rothschild could function as an ‘independent advisor’ to the Hungarian government,” the document states. According to the file, the services to be provided by Rothschild would focus, among other things, on “assessing the structure of the country’s (financial) risks and providing related advice, taking the banking sector into account.”

Lázár and Mangold agreed to organize a meeting “with the participation of Mr. Varga and Mr. Matolcsy” (presumably referring to Mihály Varga, then Minister of National Economy, and György Matolcsy, who had just taken over the leadership of the Hungarian National Bank in March 2013 and had previously served as Minister of National Economy).

However, the document reveals that Viktor Orbán, then Prime Minister, was also interested in meeting with Rothschild. “Mr. Orbán would also be happy to attend, at least part of the meeting. Taking into account the requirements of confidentiality, it was agreed that only one representative from Rothschild would be present,” the document states.

At the Zurich meeting, discussions also took place regarding cooperation with SAP, a business software company, with whose senior management, according to the report, “Prof. Mangold has excellent connections.” The document states that “Mr. Lázár showed particular interest in cooperation in the areas of financial administration and healthcare.”

The third topic of the meeting between Lázár and Mangold in Zurich was “how to better organize the Hungarian government’s marketing strategy.” They also discussed bringing in a specialized firm, and according to the report, Mangold had suggestions regarding this as well. “Prof. Mangold has excellent connections with Schuppner and CNC, companies based in Germany that possess outstanding expertise in responding appropriately to critical media coverage,” the document states, adding that an agreement was reached to hold a “joint brainstorming session in the near future with the participation of both companies.”

Rothschild did, in fact, end up assisting the Orbán government. This occurred, for example, in the fall of 2015, when the European Commission launched a detailed investigation into illegal state aid for the Paks project. The Commission examined whether the investment was being carried out under market conditions or with state aid, and this investigation also covered the extent to which state aid would distort the Hungarian and European electricity markets. Since several studies, in addition to the Commission’s own findings, had challenged the government’s arguments, the government welcomed the report by the internationally renowned Rothschild Group, which concluded that the investment could be expected to pay for itself under market conditions.

“Even independent international consultants agree that the Paks II investment will pay for itself,” the government wrote in a December 2015 press release when it made the nearly 90-page English-language document public. The report states that Rothschild made the document available specifically to the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, but neither the government nor the investment bank answered questions about who commissioned and who paid for the study.

Later, Rothschild also participated in the establishment of the partially state-owned MBH Bank, according to government statements at the time.

We sent several questions to János Lázár—who resigned from his parliamentary seat last month—through an intermediary, but he replied that he did not wish to comment. Dr. Christoph Mangold, head of Mangold’s consulting firm, stated that it is part of their company’s business policy not to respond to media inquiries.

We received the following response from SAP’s Hungarian subsidiary: “SAP has had a long-standing presence in Hungary and has collaborated with numerous government and private-sector entities over the years,” but they added that “we are not aware of any collaboration or agreement that could be linked to the meeting mentioned in your inquiry.”

Rothschild and CNC—or its successor—did not respond to our questions. We found a German consulting firm named Schuppner, but its director replied that there must have been a misunderstanding, as the company had not even been launched at the time of the Zurich meeting. (444, which also published an article on the subject, pointed out that there was likely a typo in the document, and it is possible that the reference was to a company named Hering Schuppener.)

Lázár’s Hotel Bills

Back in late 2013, Origo submitted questions to the Prime Minister’s Office regarding three trips taken by János Lázár on which the accommodation costs were significantly higher than those incurred by other officials on business trips.

On a trip to England in late November 2012, Lázár and his companion’s lodging costs totaled 920,000 forints (2555 euros at current rate) for two nights. In July 2013, one night in Milan cost 596,000 forints (1655 euros), while one night in Zurich in March 2013 cost the politician and his traveling companion 189,000 forints. The Prime Minister’s Office originally reported significantly higher lodging costs for the trip to Switzerland but later revised the figure downward, citing that other expenses had been accidentally added to the hotel bill.

In the lawsuit filed against it, the Prime Minister’s Office ultimately disclosed some information about the trips—such as the names of the hotels—but continued to keep secret what Lázár did on these business trips.

Lázár and his team initially refused to respond, arguing that disclosing the details of the trips would compromise national security, since Lázár had participated in the business trips in his capacity as head of the Information Office, which is responsible for foreign intelligence. Later in the trial, however, they did disclose details about the trips. It turned out, for example, that only two people—Lázár and an associate—took part in each trip, meaning the high hotel bills were not the result of large delegations.

A representative of the Prime Minister’s Office also stated during the first-instance trial that in Switzerland, he “held talks with a German citizen regarding Hungarian-German and Hungarian-Russian relations,” and in Italy, “held talks regarding Hungarian funds illegally transferred to Switzerland, at a hotel designated by the negotiating partner.”

Regarding the trip to Milan, the current government has revealed only that Lázár held “professional talks.” Regarding the 2012 trip to London, they stated that the purpose of Lázár’s trip was to meet with “the Minister in charge of the Prime Minister’s Office of the United Kingdom, as well as several members of the government, in order to strengthen bilateral relations.”