These documents were part of internal records obtained by Direkt36 that contain previously undisclosed details about the operations of V-H\u00edd Zrt. We will soon publish additional articles based on these documents, covering the M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros company\u2019s extravagant spendings and its dealings linked to the Orb\u00e1n family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a vicious cycle. M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros\u2019s company wins the public procurement contract and gets rich as a result. He uses that money to fund a private company that works to keep Fidesz in power by spreading propaganda,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
said J\u00f3zsef P\u00e9ter Martin, executive director of Transparency International Hungary, in response to Direkt36 regarding V-H\u00edd\u2019s funding of Megafon.<\/p>\n
In a 2014 interview, L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros spoke about how his longtime friendship with Viktor Orb\u00e1n played a role in him getting wealthy. \u201cGod, luck, and Viktor Orb\u00e1n certainly played a role in to get me to where I am today, but I never privatized anything, I never stole anything\u2014I earned everything through my work and my wits,\u201d he told Heti V\u00e1lasz.<\/p>\n
Representatives from V-H\u00edd and Megafon did not respond to our inquiry.<\/p>\n
Supporting Megafon with Billions<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Documents obtained by Direkt36 reveal that L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros\u2019s companies have been providing the organization with annual funding in hundreds of millions or even billions of forints since at least 2022 (in the rest of the article we converted the forint amounts to euro, using the current rate, so that it is easier to follow).<\/p>\n
According to the documents\u2014including a donation agreement and other internal records\u2014V-H\u00edd Zrt. contributed 843 000 euros to Megafon\u2019s operations in 2022. Among the documents we obtained is a spreadsheet listing the 2022 expenditures of Kont\u00far Csoport Kft., another company affiliated with M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros, which reveals that this firm provided 272 000 euros in funding to Megafon in March, just a few weeks before the April 2022 parliamentary elections.<\/p>\n
Excerpt from one of the donation agreements<\/p><\/div>\n
In 2023, in addition to the large-scale contributions from V-H\u00edd, another of M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros\u2019s companies, R-Kord Kft., also signed a donation agreement in which it allocated 590 000 euros to Megafon. R-Kord gave the money even though in the same year the company was unable to pay its subcontractors for their work on a government-commissioned railway development project. According to Szabad Eur\u00f3pa<\/a>, this put several small business owners in financial trouble; some had to take out loans, while others were forced to lay off employees because they could not access their funds.<\/p>\n
In January 2024, Istv\u00e1n S\u00e1rv\u00e1ry, CEO of V-H\u00edd, presented a proposal to the company\u2019s supervisory board regarding various planned subsidies. The document stated that the company planned to provide Megafon with 1.3 million euros per month from January through March\u2014for a total of approximately 4 million euros. The supervisory board, of which L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros Jr. is a member, most likely approved these subsidies. Other documents that have come into our possession\u2014donation agreements and receipts\u2014indicate that these large donations were actually paid out to Megafon.<\/p>\n
However, V-H\u00edd donated even more to the organization that year. An internal email from 2025 listed a total of 8.1 million euros in funding provided to Megafon in 2024. In addition to the email, other documents also indicate that these payments were made.<\/p>\n
The construction company also provided separate funding to one of Megafon\u2019s most well-known members, D\u00e1vid Filep.<\/p>\n
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According to emails and accounting documents, Aktu\u00e1lis M\u00e9dia Kft., a company owned by Filep received around 600\u00a0000 euros in 2022. The documents indicate that Filep\u2019s firm received this money in February, before the parliamentary elections. Filep\u2019s company also aimed to promote government propaganda and discredit the opposition.<\/p>\n
According to Telex<\/a>, Aktu\u00e1lis M\u00e9dia Kft.\u2014which has since been dissolved\u2014spent nearly 452 000 euros on advertising its videos between 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n
Filep did not respond to our questions, stating that his company \u201cacted as a private-sector entity, and the details of its internal business processes and partnerships are not subject to public disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n
The way of public funds<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Megafon was launched in 2020 with the purpose of boosting Fidesz\u2019s propaganda messages on social media with the help of individuals who present themselves online as right-wing influencers. Megafon\u2019s founder and CEO is Istv\u00e1n Kov\u00e1cs who is the strategic director of a think-tank, which also received indirectly support from the Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Cabinet Office, then led by Antal Rog\u00e1n who was in charge of government communications.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s revenues grew year after year, as did its expenses. By 2025, it employed 57 people<\/a>, and the organization\u2019s most recognizable faces became Philip R\u00e1kay, D\u00e1niel Boh\u00e1r, D\u00e1niel De\u00e1k, Krist\u00f3f Trombit\u00e1s, Stefi D\u00e9ri, and D\u00e1vid Filep.<\/p>\n
Megafon quickly became the number one political and public affairs advertiser on the Hungarian-language Facebook. According to Telex\u2019s article<\/a>, by the end of the 2022 election campaign, their total advertising spending had already exceeded one billion forints (2.7 million euros), and in the first half of 2024, their advertising costs surpassed two billion forints (5.4 million euros).<\/p>\n
Megafon has never disclosed exactly where its revenue comes from.<\/p>\n
\u201cI approached a few conservative businessmen and asked them to support our cause,\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Megafon director Istv\u00e1n Kov\u00e1cs stated in an interview with Mandiner<\/a>. He added that \u201cof course, if that person happens to be L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros, we\u2019ll gratefully accept his support,\u201d but he did not officially confirm that M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros was backing them. He emphasized that \u201cthere is no public money in Megafon, and there never will be.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, public funds did reach Megafon indirectly.\u00a0 V-H\u00edd Zrt., which has won several government contracts\u2014such as the modernization of railway infrastructure, highway expansion, and the Budapest-Belgrade railway project costing 2.1 billion euros\u2014receives funding from EU and Hungarian public funds to carry out these projects. Among the projects listed on their website<\/a>, there is not a single commercial project beyond its government contracts.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, the company, which operates on public funds, distributed billions of its revenue to an organization that promoted Fidesz and spread its propaganda messages.<\/p>\n
V-H\u00edd has previously donated money to organizations close to Fidesz.<\/p>\n
This April, 444 reported<\/a> that the construction company had also provided 4.9 million euros in support to a foundation, which organizes the \u201cDigital Civic Circles\u201d intended to promote Fidesz online. In 2023, K-monitor revealed<\/a> that V-H\u00edd had donated 93 000 euros to Fidelitas, Fidesz\u2019s youth organization.<\/p>\n
In 2024, the State Audit Office (\u00c1SZ) of Hungary also investigated whether Megafon\u2019s activities might involve prohibited campaign financing, but according to Telex\u2019s article<\/a>, the office did not find any irregularities at that time. According to L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Windisch, head of \u00c1SZ, they found no evidence of institutional cooperation, a joint prime ministerial candidate, shared campaign materials, jointly funded events, or party support. Windisch said that they had contacted Megafon and requested a statement as to whether there had been any organized cooperation with Fidesz during the campaign. The response was that there had not been.<\/p>\n
However, the fall of the Orb\u00e1n government also brought about the end of Megafon.<\/p>\n
Magyar Hang was the first to report<\/a> that, following Fidesz\u2019s defeat, a downsizing process had begun at the company. According to an article by Media1<\/a>, on election night there was still talk of Megafon continuing its operations, and on a later meeting the possibility of switching to crowdfunding was raised. On April 21, they announced that if a solution was not found within a month, mass layoffs might follow.<\/p>\n
Megafon\u2019s website became inaccessible by August.<\/p>\n
D\u00e1niel De\u00e1k, one of Megafon\u2019s well-known faces, responded to a question from Telex<\/a> at this year\u2019s Tusv\u00e1nyos festival regarding Megafon\u2019s closure, saying that, in his opinion, \u201cit was already inevitable.\u201d He also noted that \u201cthanks to political ads, their content reached a great many people.\u201d He said that after the election, it is no longer necessary to \u201camplify right-wing voices through a political action group,\u201d but rather on an individual basis.<\/p>\n
Telex also asked De\u00e1k about funding. \u201cWe still have our supporters,\u201d he said, but added that, thanks to his fortunate family situation, he doesn\u2019t actually need funding for his work.<\/p>\n
Illustration: P\u00e9ter Somogyi (szarvas) \/ Telex<\/em><\/p>\n
Pierre Romera Zhang, member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists<\/a>, assisted with the technical processing of the documents cited in this article via the Datashare<\/a> platform.<\/em><\/p>\n
We used the Opten service to access Hungarian company data.<\/em><\/p>\n
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Direkt36 has obtained internal documents detailing the operations of one of L\u0151rinc M\u00e9sz\u00e1ros\u2019s most important companies. These documents reveal, that the publicly funded company provided huge sums of money to Megafon, which disseminated Fidesz propaganda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":13461,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"single-telex.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[947,946,222,948,949],"ppma_author":[935,771],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t
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