Direkt36 has uncovered new details about two companies with close links to Ádám Matolcsy, the son of former MNB Governor György Matolcsy. The companies deal in high-end luxury real estate and other local businesses.

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.

Kristóf Nobilis is accused of financial fraud in a lawsuit over an alleged mismanagement of billions of forints in the Ministry of Agriculture.

Direkt36 has obtained an official document according to which Ádám Matolcsy, who got rich with the help of state funds, rented a villa worth HUF 3.5 billion (EUR 9.4 million) in Dubai. It is a property advertised as having at least eight bathrooms and a private beach.

As part of the Dubai Unlocked investigation, Direkt36 has found that a company with links to the inner circle of Ádám Matolcsy, the son of the Hungarian central bank’s president, has bought several luxury apartments in Dubai.

In an ongoing criminal case prosecutors claim officials of the Ministry of Agriculture fraudulently disbursed HUF 2,2 billion in 2019. Direkt36 has learned that authorities are now leading inquiries into how half of that money ended up in the Swiss bank account of a Panamanian offshore company tied to the well known Hungarian business tycoon Kristóf Nobilis.

The energy minister had a company in Cyprus at a time when Viktor Orbán was attacking others for such businesses. Direkt36 obtained the documents of this deal, which involved hundreds of millions of forints, as part of the international investigative project called Cyprus Confidential.

The revelations about offshore firms brought to light by the source behind the Panama Papers toppled government leaders and spawned thousands of investigations. Now for the first time the source gave an interview.

Jenő Faller told Direkt36 that when he founded the offshore company it was a “fashionable” thing to do.

The offshore leaks known as the Pandora Papers show that Hungay has been promoted to service providers as the new Cyprus or Malta. A lawyer wrote that Hungary can give an “onfshore face” to offshore companies.