According to documents obtained by Direkt36, a company owned by Szilárd Benkő, who is close to the foreign minister, was working on one part of the CATL factory.

During one of the hearings on ministerial abuse, it emerged that one of the defendants had sent Márton Nobilis, who was then a high-ranking official at the ministry, to a soccer match in Berlin. Márton Nobilis has not been charged with anything in the case, but his father, a well-known businessman, is sitting in the dock.

Among the documents obtained by Direkt36 are those relating to the planned lease of a Porsche 911, although the company says the deal never took place. The majority owner of the company, which also manages state funds, has private ties to Antal Rogán.

A lot of money has been lost from the Hungarian National Bank’s foundation as a result of bad decisions, but the people around former governor of the central bank György Matolcsy’s son have still benefited. Direkt36 has obtained a draft report from the State Audit Office of Hungary on the management of the central bank’s much-criticized foundation, which has hundreds of billions of forints of assets.

More and more pro-Fidesz figures are appearing in the court case linked to the Ministry of Agriculture. Meanwhile, minister István Nagy was only worried about what he had signed. Direkt36 has learned new details about the twisted case.

The government has given huge amounts of support to help build the factory in Debrecen. Direkt36 found out that a company owned a few years ago by an old friend and colleague of the Foreign Minister was involved in the works.

Szilárd Benkő worked for many years alongside Péter Szijjártó and also yachted with him on the Adriatic Sea. The man with a background as an instrument maker entered the construction industry a few years ago and, according to Direkt36’s research, has received state funding from the foreign ministry directly and indirectly on several occasions.

They sprayed anti-migrant slogan to Jobbik posters in the run-up of the 2018 campaign. Several people linked to the Foreign Ministry were in the group, Direkt36 revealed.

Direkt36 looked into the content of consultancy contracts that the Hungarian government signed last year with Klaus Mangold, an influential German businessman dubbed Mr. Russia for his Russian relations. These showed among others that he was entitled for a lucrative success fee in exchange for his assistance in the buy-back of the Budapest Airport.

We have explored the business successes of Péter Szijjártó’s old colleague and teammate, and how hundreds of millions of forints of public money from the Foreign Ministry contributed to them.