Earlier this year Direkt36 was able to confirm the identity of the ultimate beneficial owners of dozens of private equity funds from a database managed by NAV, the Hungarian tax authority, but these records have now been deleted. No one takes responsibility for the disappearance of the data.

The Hungarian broker company involved in the purchase of the spyware that hacked phones launched a series of lawsuits against us and other media outlets, but lost all of them. In the meantime, however, real investigation into the circumstances of the surveillance has been very slow due to the authorities’ resistance. Direkt36 summarizes the most important developments two years after the scandal broke.

Until last autumn, Nikolay Kosov headed the International Investment Bank, which is leaving Hungary. According to documents obtained by Direkt36, the Russian banker, who has since been hit by US sanctions, was planning to transfer his family’s assets to Dubai.

Documents prove that pro-government businessmen actually own private equity funds that hide vast fortunes.

Hungary launched a major military development program seven years ago. The prime minister has used it to strengthen his international relationships and also realised the usefulness of the military in domestic politics.

We have explored the business successes of Péter Szijjártó’s old colleague and teammate, and how hundreds of millions of forints of public money from the Foreign Ministry contributed to them.

Direkt36 has been part of the “Shadow Diplomats” project, an investigation into the murky world of honorary consuls, led by ICIJ and ProPublica. We found that Hungary is represented by honorary consuls who are accused of crimes such as financing terrorism.

For some time now, all government proposals land on PM Orbán’s desk with green, yellow, or red post-its. People with inside knowledge about the election strategy of Fidesz described the ruling party’s campaign strategy for the 2022 parliamentary elections and its conscious use of social media.

The think tank of the late Hungarian PM has been awarded almost 5 million forints from the government so far, yet it made losses in 2020. Earlier, Direkt36 uncovered its problematic spending and costly travels.

In April, elderly patients were transferred between two Hungarian hospitals without testing. Thus, Covid-19 got into another institution.