Hungarian Politics

[The Brain]

Ombudsam?

[Tamas]

Ombudsam?

Ecaxtyl

[Tamas]

If the government survives this Quaestor-scandal (and I would put good money on that it will) Hungar is truly hopeless.

Here is an executive summary on how things unfolded from cca. 2009 onward, based on the snippets we have learned. Bear with the length please, I will stick to the basics, but it will make you feel lucky you live in a country with civilised politics (Mono and Marty exempted I guess)


-the Quaestor boss cozied up to the Fidesz government. He did the same with the socialist government as well, but not nearly as successfully as to these guys

-He invested heavily in Orban's hobby: football

-Somewhere along the line, he starts common businesses with the foreign ministry

-as Szijjarto, present Foreign Minister gets closer to being the FM, the relationship deepens, and the office ("Hungarian National Trading House") created to further Hungarian business interests not only does business via Quaestor companies, but also keeps its budget-money at Quaestor, via Quaestor bonds (trivia: this is the same government who nationalised private pension funds because "stock markets are dangerous"). Around 12 million euros.

-Quaestor had been basically running a sort of pyramid game for X years, where they piss the money away on some channels and basically issued bonds to cover payments on old ones, and by the last couple of years they basically release fake bonds. How this went through the Central Bank's approval process is still not known. Damages are around 500 million euros IIRC

-Few weeks ago, when shit REALLY starts to pile up, the Quaestor boss assembles a crisis meeting of the leadership, but assures them that he shall talk to FM Szijjarto, who will surely sort things out and find a way to keep the company going. He (the boss) shall write a letter to PM Orban and have Szijjarto deliver it

-Apparently, when Szijjarto heard the news of imminent Quaestor-doom, he did not save his illicit business partner, but ran for the hills: he ordered all Foreign Ministry money to be removed from Quaestor accounts

-That 12 million euros that near-broke Quaestor had to provide was for sure the final nail in their coffin. 4 days after they wire the money back, they publicly announce they have requested bankrupcy proceedings against each other. Well, their bond-business child company, at least

-Which turns out to be a lie. IIRC they aren't officially unde bankrupcy control even now, as it took them more than a week to file it after the public announcement

-Smalltime investors try to get their money but in vain of course

-Police starts investigation. Couple of days ago, the Budapest-based team is dispersed and a new made of investigators called in from outside the capital take over the case

-Quaestor-boss is still not under arrest to this day. The public isn't even sure if he is still in the country or not.

-While the more recent stuff above were going down this March, Quaestor had received a new CEO: a guy with elementary school education living in a remote village, who have been alternating between being in prison for petty crimes and being umeployed his whole life

-Quaestor boss announces that he shall take back CEO-ship from this guy because he "listened to crisis-consultants" but realised he was in the wrong.


Fidesz continous to be in a bit of disarray over this, like how first Szijjarto basically admitted he received insider information 4 days before the crash and thus removed the moneyz, to Orban tromphing that in a press conference and saying it was not insider information to Szijjarto, but his (Orban's) personal order to all ministries to remove all money from brokerage firms after the first one failed (Buda-Cash, a story interesting on its own, but dwarfed by the organised crime epic which is Quaestor).

Oh and of course they blame this on the socialist party, which is made all the more ridicoulous by the countless PR photos were Szijjarto and/or Orban is having happy times with the Quaestor boss on various business and private occasions.

[Tamas]

Today, it was revealed/rumoured that the Quaestor-boss recently wrote to the Foreign Minister again, indicating that he is willing to take the blame if his family is left alone and if small investors are compensated.

That was the news couple of hours before 3 Quaestor officals have been arrested, possibly him among them. 

[KRonn]

Wow, what a mess of corruption and scandal! Not that this stuff doesn't happen elsewhere of course, as Hungary isn't alone in this kind of thing.

[The Brain]

Not many Swedes are aware of how insane Hungary is.

[Tamas]

The personal assistant and general right-hand man of the quaestor boss was not only working in Orban's office until 2012, but also his fiancé is the eldest daughter of the chief prosecutor.

[Tamas]

Hungary has requested acceptance as observer into the Allianza del Pacifio: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Alliance

[Valmy]

Huh? Why?

[The Larch]

Huh? Why?

Lots of countries with little relation to the Pacific are observers there, like India, Morocco, Israel, Switzerland...several EU members are also observers as well, Spain, Portugal, UK, Italy, Netherlands. Guess it's not an unusual thing in international organizations.

[Valmy]

Bolivia's plans in Asia are of huge importance to Morocco though.

[Ed Anger]

Bolivia's plans in Asia are of huge importance to Morocco though.

Bolivia has an infantry,cavalry and artillery card set to cash in.

[alfred russel]

Huh? Why?

Seems like a good reason for senior leaders to get expense paid trips to the Americas.

[Tamas]

Huh? Why?

Lots of countries with little relation to the Pacific are observers there, like India, Morocco, Israel, Switzerland...several EU members are also observers as well, Spain, Portugal, UK, Italy, Netherlands. Guess it's not an unusual thing in international organizations.

I think you are mistaking it with that big pacific alliance thingie. This is a kind of trade cooperation thingie for some south american countries.

[Tamas]

Orban and like half the government, plus businesspeople visited Kasakhstan. Orban, as usual, was in good form:

"We are always glad to come to Kazakhstan. We are equal in political terms in the European Union, but genealogically we are different. When we go to Brussels we do not have any relatives there. But when we come to Kazakhstan we have close people here. It is a strange feeling for us but it is true. Therefore, Hungarian delegations always come to Kazakhstan with pleasure."

Yakshemash!