The scandal and mystery around Fidesz Minister Lajos Kósa deepened on Wednesday, with Magyar Nemzet reporting that in a notarized document from September 2013, the minister’s mother was promised a “gift” of 2.6 million euros from the woman in the town of Csenger, called Mária Matkó (Mrs. Gábor Szabó), who claimed to be the beneficiary of an estate worth 4.35 billion euros. According to the notarized agreement, the minister’s mother was to receive this gift based on a previous understanding between the parties involved.
Early this year, questions arose about how in 2015 Mrs. Kósa, now an 82 year old pensioner, took ownership of a near bankrupt pig farm belonging to relatives of the minister and how she eventually received 123 million forints in Hungarian state funding for her venture. What’s curious is that the elderly Mrs. Kósa (her maiden name is Katalin Bacskó) bought a 50% stake in a pig farming company called Méker Kft. and it was this firm which then purchased the insolvent Szalka-Pig Kft. Before buying Szalka-Pig Kft, Mrs. Kósa invested enough money in Méker Kft.–from unknown sources–that it was able to come to an agreement with Szalka-Pig Kft’s creditors, thus ending bankruptcy proceedings that were ordered by a court in Nyíregyháza. Neither Minister Kósa, nor the elderly Mrs. Kósa ever explained where she found the funds to buy the bankrupt pig farm and pay off the creditors. Mrs. Kosa, of course, is a private citizen , so she can argue that she does not owe the public an explanation. But the widespread suspicion in many circles was that Mrs. Kósa might be the Minister Kósa’s stooge. A satirical song, based on a folk tune, was written about this, entitled “My mother is not a stooge” or in Hungarian: “Nem stróman az Édesanyám.”
In the notarized document from September 2013, which indicated that Mrs. Kósa would receive a gift of 2.6 million euros, the billionaire from Csenger claimed to be a shareholder of Swiss aviation company Altenrhein Aviation AG. She gave both Lajos Kósa and another named individual, János Czakó, authorization to attend and represent her at the Swiss company’s shareholders’ meetings in both 2013 and 2015.
The plot thickens with another document, dated 12 January 2015, in which Lajos Kósa is authorized to manage shares issued by Paris-based Crédit Industriel et Commercial. (According to the agreement, Mr. Kósa was not permitted to sell these shares, nor receive dividends.) This agreement is then notarized on 2 February 2015.
Lajos Kósa. Photo: Magyar Nemzet / Béla Nagy
Magyar Nemzet reports that it has also seen another document, in which János Czakó and someone called Tamás Szabó are given authorization to withdraw 25 million euros each from a safe in Switzerland.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kósa continued to claim that he was the victim of a fraudster. He explained that the woman kept telling Mr. Kósa for years that she does not trust the state, nor banks–and that she has trust in nobody, but him. How many of our readers have received email scams from Nigeria, which claim similar things–a man with a massive estate who trusts in only you to help him out? If there is nothing more to this story than the fact that Mr. Kósa fell for a scam such as this–one that the vast majority of Hungarian citizens would not fall for–then it is alarming that he is still a government minister in charge of running municipal development programs.
But Mr. Kósa’s ties to Mrs. Gábor Szabó run deeper, as Index reports. First, the woman’s son claims that Mr. Kósa contacted them–and not the other way around. Second, and more importantly: the woman owns a company called the Észak-Atlanti Pénzügyi Befektető Kft (The North Atlantic Financial Investor Ltd). She is co-owners with a man called Mihály Orendi. Mr. Orendi is vice-president of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, former director of the main sports complex in Debrecen, Mr. Kósa’s hometown, of which he was also mayor, and he is the executive director of a skating organization affiliated with the Fidesz politician. As Index points out, just a few weeks ago, Mr. Kósa and Mr. Orendi attended the Winter Olympics together.
And to make the ties between Mr. Kósa and the fraudster who allegedly duped him even stronger: Mr. Kósa lawyer, István Fiák, is reportedly co-owner of Mrs. Szabó’s company.
On Wednesday, Mr. Kósa, in his capacity as Minister for the Modern Cities Program, attempted to hold a press conference on a project in the town of Érd, southwest of Budapest. Opposition activists showed up and disrupted his press conference, yelling a range of questions at Mr. Kósa, including things like “Where’s the money? Don’t lie!” Reporters asked him yet again about the scandal that is engulfing him. And once more, he repeated that he was the victim of a scam. He refused to answer any questions on his ties to the woman’s company nor did he explain why he wanted to secure for his mother a gift worth 2.6 million euros.
index.hu claiming that the company of which Mrs. Szabó was the shareholder is, according to Polish government sources, under Russian governmental influence…
https://index.hu/gazdasag/2018/03/14/kosa_svajci_ceg_lengyelorszag/
She who sleeps with pigs wakes up with fleas….a real dirt of a person.
“Where is the money”. C’mon Adam, you are smarter than this! There is no 4.35 billion Euros. Anyone who understands the basics of global financial markets will understand that no such money could have flown into Hungarian paper assets, without it being detected. There might be an idiot politician, but that is about it! Anyone who believes that there is such a sum involved in this story is no smarter than he is. And if this money does not exist, at most a scam is all there is, where somehow along the line a gullible politician got dragged in. But we should keep in mind that at no point did he offer to do something illegal from what we know so far (help me with my inheritance and I will give you part of it is not illegal).
I remember a while ago someone close to me received a letter notifying him that he won some “lottery”. I was stupefied by the fact that he tried to ask me if it could possibly be real. He was otherwise not a bad person, or a particularly dumb person. He was good at the things he did in life. Its just that sometimes people want to believe when presented with such promises, which is why such scams are effective. You should relate to this Adam. I mean, it seems to me that you want this to be a real corruption deal, not because it would financially enrich you, but because it reinforces some strong beliefs that you hold on to very tight.
Anyway! It might be a story that might get some electoral traction with the badly misinformed, so I expect it will be around for a while.
So you agree that if Kosa was such a total imbecile, he is not qualified to serve as minister and that he should resign with immediate effect? Oh, and do you care to explain why Kosa was all buddy-buddy with a con artist and her associates for years?
If every politician in the Western world who is an imbecile were to resign, we’d be left with no governments! That is why we have the electorate, which every politician will swear that they are collectively geniuses, turn up to vote in order to get rid of the “imbeciles”. And then, after a few years we repeat!
Peter
The 2.6 million to Kosa’s mother is setting a money laundering scheme, unless another explanation is eventually offered, proved (can’t wait for that miracle).
The fact that no money arrived through the scheme doesn’t change the fact of preparation.
The rest is bla bla.
If this was a Nigeria-style scheme, there would have had to be a payoff. The 2.6 million would have been the payoff. Now the question is for what? Did they get some money out of Kosa somehow, directly or indirectly? Did they get something else out of him? If so, it has to be proven that whatever goods or services he provided were outside his legal rights to do so, otherwise he may in fact be just a victim. I am not sure that one can argue that something illegal happened at this point. But be careful not to end up making the argument that would suggest that everyone who has been swindled through such schemes ought to be arrested and prosecuted for money laundering.
So far, all these allegations are “bla bla”, until proof of illegal wrongdoing will surface, if ever. At this point, there is none as far as I can tell.
Peter, if Kósa was a hapless victim of a confidence trickster, and if he already realized that this was the case back in late 2016 or early 2017, then why did he wait until this story broke in March 2018 to file a police report?
Embarrassment perhaps? It certainly makes him look bad to say the least!
Mr. Kósa has always come across as being naive by comparison with his fellow ministers. However I read this comment (from another anonymous commenter on another website):
“The interesting part is that Kósa was sent to Switzerland to attend a general meeting. I mean who is in a position at all to ask one of the most senior Fidesz politicians to carry out such a rather lowly, administrative task normally done by petty operators?”
If this is true (I know it’s a big if), then Mr. Kósa may well be toast (as far as his career is concerned). Or do you have another explanation for why he would have gone to Switzerland for a meeting of Mrs. Szabó’s company?
Peter
Pathetic your attempt to present Kosa, as a victim. He was CEO, singed all these papers, his lawyer Istvàn Fiàk set up and supervised the scheme. They also are together in the sports associations and the Hun Olympic committee activities.
Re. Money – eg. Fiàk set up the “Road to employment” gov program gobbling billions without producing a single job, and where 1500 millions were not accounted for.
Now Kosa is a commisar of a major gov program, among others, disbursing over 100 billion ft.
Kosa may be an idiot, but not all the people around him as Debrecen mayor, Fid VP, commissioner + Fiàk and other Mafia consigliere.
You may embarrass yourself, but I feel offended when offered such nonsense.
What a disgusting scoundrel! But hey, he pales in comparison to the likes of Arpi Habony, Orban’s personal stooge, L. Meszaros or the PM’s son-in-law, Tiborcz.
As for this story in particular–as the old saying goes: if it walks like a duck…
You get the feeling that *they* are playing with Kosa, waiting for him to dig his own grave (and he is stupid enough to do so) and then *they* will deliver the fatal blow.
*They* being singular. I am presuming Simiscka is directing this from outside The Motherland?
Over 3 weeks to go folks, a lot more fun and games to follow, more than Kosa will be sleeping uneasily tonight, hell hath no fury like an Oligarch (who knows all the secrets) scorned.
I think you’re right. By the way, did you know that today is Kósa’s birthday? I’m pretty sure that the timing is not a coincidence either. Simicska is dripping snippets of incriminating information and documents on Kósa, and on Day 1, Kósa walked right into the trap. He started making contradictory and frantic statements. I am certain more is forthcoming and Kósa will slowly hang himself. The bigger question is whether he will take down others along with him…
The Ides of March ….
PETER told you precisely what this is !
A sham, just like those old Liberian deals.
There is absolutely nothing even close to any reasonable person could believe.
It’s a typical election time political trick to take the public’s awareness from the real issues in the election.
This is just what will keep the masses wondering about it till election time.
It’s strange enough to keep most peoples’ mind focused on it, not on the election issues.
Want to bet ?
Bende
Even with the gov propaganda carpet bombing and info control of the countryside 62% of “reasonable persons could believe” in and like change of gov, according to the polls.
What can be bigger election issues than:
– trying to stop the Orban Mafia corruption orgy gobbling up >1.5% GDP,
– redirect the hundreds of billions sunk in unfeasible or the potentially suicidal Paks2 projects,
– reversing the rot and destruction in the healthcare and education, which is literally killing the nation?
Hun has deteriorated to the levels of Romania and in certain areas Bulgaria and is still slipping behind.
Gift aside, the post shows clearly a scheme of laundering and corruption:
– 80 yo kindergarten teachers acquiring totally unrelated businesses from their $280 monthly pensions?
– Businesses fighting bankruptcy spring to life and receive the max amounts of gov grants after been acquired by gov people?
– All these gov and private “businesses” set and tended by the same layers/businessmen?
In any rule of law country the source of the capital will have to be identified from money laundering and tax evasion point of view and gov subsidies do not go to gov people, poor F.Fillion had to retire from the presidential race for giving a part time standard job income to his wife.
But Hun is not a rule of low country, it’s Orbanistan.
Sorry
Hun is now a low country without rule of law.
Facts;
The Hungarian Parlament has passed the 2018 budget.
It’s 61.2 billion Euros. with an estimated/approved deficit of 1.46 billion Euros.
One commenter on the KMH-n stated that there are 21 billionairs in all of Germany.
Do you believe that one of them just happened to walk accross a one horse village in Hungary, and happened to lose his/her billfold, that contained 4.35 billion Euros.
This meat-head and his Notary has no idea what to do with it?!
You do believe it ?
Than you need a headshrinker !
But the more outrageous things alleged in the story the longer it will live in the mind of the avarage voters. So they’ll be distracted from the real issues.
Hmmm?
Pigs really do fly in Hungary !
Kosa is no doubt a naive dummy.
He has proven it himself, just like most of your beloved government leaders.
Even a country chick mas made a fool of him, and of all those who fell for this lie.
And this are the kind of individuals who supposedly lead Hungary?!
At least he finally admitted that he was duped by a peasant girl.
So are all who fell for a phony story.
Four and a half billion Euro, that no one has ever seen a red cent of it ever.
Kosa kept believing it since 2012.
They not just fell for it, but some even landed money for the women. Idiots !
And this site and the KMH published it a facts.
Just who could ever believe anything else one may read here?