Hungary Has Created a New Agency to Recover Funds Embezzled During the Orbán Era — Bloomberg
Hungary has officially established the National Asset Recovery Agency, which will be responsible for tracking down and recovering public funds that were illegally misappropriated in previous years. The new agency is one of the key anti-corruption reforms of Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s government following his victory in the parliamentary elections.
Lawmakers passed the corresponding resolution during a vote on Tuesday.
The newly created National Asset Recovery Agency is set to become a central element in the fight against corruption and the recovery of state property, which, according to estimates by the new government, was lost during Viktor Orbán’s 16 years in power.
The new agency will have significantly broader powers than similar anti-corruption institutions in other European countries.
In particular, the agency will be able to:
- take over investigations into corruption cases from other government agencies;
- access confidential financial information;
- bring charges against suspects;
- file civil lawsuits to recover illegally obtained assets;
- temporarily take control of companies suspected of illegally possessing state property;
- impose fines of up to 5 billion forints (about $16 million) for obstructing investigations.
In this way, the agency will effectively combine the functions of the prosecutor’s office, the police, financial investigators, and civil courts.
Péter Magyar’s government cites the need to create this new body due to the widespread corruption risks that have accumulated over the years of Viktor Orbán’s rule.
During this period, Hungary has fallen to last place among European Union countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, which was one of the reasons the European Union suspended billions of euros in funding to the country due to doubts about the effectiveness of its anti-corruption efforts.
According to Bloomberg, over the past decade, large business groups have formed around Viktor Orbán’s allies, operating in the banking sector, energy, construction, tourism, and other strategic sectors of the economy.
Prime Minister Péter Magyar stated that his government’s fight against corruption and the recovery of illegally appropriated assets resembles Italy’s campaign against the mafia, emphasizing his intention to completely eliminate the consequences of the previous administration’s long-standing influence.
This was reported by Bloomberg.
Hungarian Attorney General Gábor Balint Nád has submitted his resignation. He assumed the position under the previous administration, and the new Prime Minister, Péter Magyar, had demanded his dismissal.
As a reminder, Hungary will remain without a president.
Earlier, Hungary restored access to a number of Ukrainian news sites that had been blocked in response to reciprocal restrictions imposed by Kyiv. The decision marked a step toward partially unblocking the flow of information between the countries following a media conflict.
Hungary pushed to remove from the final declaration of the European Union summit the wording regarding Ukraine’s accelerated accession to the EU.
