<\/p>\n
Some of Hungary\u2019s wealthiest people also appear in the leaked documents known as the Panama Papers. A new article by Direkt36 shows the links to offshore companies of S\u00e1ndor Cs\u00e1nyi, Hungary\u2019s richest man, Zolt\u00e1n Sp\u00e9der, another wealthy banker, Gy\u00f6rgy Gatty\u00e1n, an internet entrepreneur, and G\u00e1bor Kov\u00e1cs, a former banker and art collector.<\/p>\n
Tam\u00e1s Szemerey, a cousin of Hungarian central bank governor Gy\u00f6rgy Matolcsy, also had shares in an offshore company. This is especially remarkable because after the Panama Papers scandal had broken out, the central bank even issued a statement saying that \u201eGy\u00f6rgy Matolcsy and members of his family did not and do not have any offshore interests, companies or investments.\u201d<\/p>\n
The full story is available in the new issue of Forbes\u2019 Hungarian edition.<\/p>\n
The Panama Papers documents were obtained by the German newspaper S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung and more than 370 journalists from 76 countries worked on it in a yearlong investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. From Hungary, Direkt36 was the only journalism organization participating in the project.<\/p>\n
Simply owning or using offshore companies is not illegal or immoral, and nothing suggests that the businessmen mentioned in this article used offshore companies or services for improper purposes. But, thanks to the secrecy of the offshore world, their offshore activities have not been known to the public while details of their other business interests \u2013 for example, that of their Hungarian companies \u2013 are accessible for everybody. Their involvement in the Panama Papers also shows that the use of offshore companies is prevalent in the circles of the Hungarian business elite even as governments around the world \u2013 including Hungary \u2013 take serious efforsts to make the offshore world more transparent.<\/p>\n
In May 2009, Szemerey became the director and shareholder of Sunjoy Development, a company incorporated on the British Virgin Islands. The documents do not reveal the activities of Sunjoy and Szemerey claims that in fact it did not do any meaningful work during his ownership. In a written statement, he said he set up Sunjoy Development because he needed a foreign company for a technological innovation project outside Europe. A year later he quit the company because, according to his statement, he realized that his existing Hungarian businesses do not give him enough time to start a new venture overseas.<\/p>\n
Szemerey said that during his ownership, Sunjoy Development did not even have a bank account. He also said that he did not tell about it to his cousin, Gy\u00f6rgy Matolcsy, who in the meantime became a member of the government after Orb\u00e1n\u2019s election victory in 2010.<\/p>\n
Cs\u00e1nyi was connected to one of the offshore companies exposed in the Panama Papers through his wife. According to the leaked documents, a British Virgins Islands company\u00a0 <\/span>called Durion Services was registered under the name of Erika Cs\u00e1nyi in 2014, with the purpose of \u201eproviding contracts to crew members of a yacht\u201d.<\/p>\n As Cs\u00e1nyi confirmed, he owns a boat through a Maltese company. The offshore documents refer to the boat as a \u201eyacht\u201d but the banker described it as a catamaran sailboat.<\/p>\n Cs\u00e1nyi said that it is common to use offshore companies for running a boat since the crew members might come from outside the European Union and the boats also ship on waters outside the EU\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n The Durion Services is not in operation any more. According to Cs\u00e1nyi, last April they hired a professional boat management company. Durion Services was dissolved and struck from the register, he said.<\/p>\n Zolt\u00e1n Sp\u00e9der had links to two offshore companies through power of attorney documents that gave him wide authority to conduct business on behalf of the companies.<\/p>\n Whitestone International, one of the offshore companies played an important role in the history of a publishing company called CEMP. CEMP runs Hungary\u2019s biggest news site, Index.hu, now owned by Sp\u00e9der.<\/p>\n In 2008, the majority of Whitestone International\u2019s shares were purchased by a Seychelless firm. As the Panama Papers show, he had been in contact with Whitestone even earlier. He was granted a power of attorney back in September 2007. At the time, Sp\u00e9der was already a board member and minority owner of CEMP.<\/p>\n Sp\u00e9der claimed, through a written statement, that he never was the owner of Whitestone. He did not answer the questions on the company\u2019s ownership and on how he got in contact with the firm. He only said that no transaction took place with the use of the Power of Attorney he had.<\/p>\n Sp\u00e9der had similar link to another offshore company. According to the leaked documents, he was given a Power of Attorney for a Novum Asset Management, a company registered on the British Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n Sp\u00e9der said that he did not own the company and claimed that no transaction took place with the use of his Power of Attorney. He did not answer any other questions concerning the company.<\/p>\n Gy\u00f6rgy Gatty\u00e1n, a billionaire who built his business empire on running porn sites, got in contact with Mossack Fonseca through another law firm in late 2013. Then he was already living in Los Angeles as he disclosed this in an interview that year with Hungarian daily N\u00e9pszabads\u00e1g. The Panama Papers reveal that the same year he also took steps to immigrate to the United States.<\/p>\n As part of this process he initiated the creation of a trust, with the goal \u2013 according to Tam\u00e1s Nemes, the communications director of his companies – \u201eto take care of his family and his loved ones in the present and in the future when he will no longer be around.\u201d<\/p>\n These documents also show that at the time of the procedure Gatty\u00e1n had a company that owned his 24 million dollar home in Los Angeles. Nemes did not confirm the value but said that Gatty\u00e1n still owns the company and the property as well. He also said that Gatty\u00e1n\u2019s immigration process has not finished yet. The billionaire lives in the US as a resident, using a visa, Nemes added.<\/p>\n G\u00e1bor Kov\u00e1cs, a former banker whose art foundation receives substantial donations from the government, is also implicated in the Panama Papers through some of his companies. Four of his firms – Bank\u00e1r Zrt., Kogart Park Kft., Kogart H\u00e1z Kft. and P-Ag\u00e1rd Kft. \u2013 became shareholders of Trewfield Corporation, a Seychelless company in December 2012.<\/p>\n The documents do not contain any information about Trewfield\u2019s activities. Kov\u00e1cs, through one of his colleagues, said that he does not want to talk about what the company is doing. He did not answer other questions about the offshore company either.<\/p>\n The first Panama Papers stories were published early April, having a powerful impact around the world.<\/p>\n In Hungary, the first stories exposed the hidden offshore interests of two politicians. Zsolt Horv\u00e1th, a former politician of the governing party Fidesz, became a director of an offshore company while he was still a member of parliament. L\u00e1szl\u00f3 Boldvai, a prominent member of the socialist opposition party, was connected to an offshore company with a Swiss bank account through his wife.<\/p>\n Fidesz condemned Horv\u00e1th\u2019s offshore activities. Boldvai suspended his party membership, effectively ending his political career. At the request of Hungary\u2019s prime minister, the tax authorities launched an investigation on the Hungarian offshore links exposed by the Panama Papers project. No result has been announced of this probe.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A leggazdagabb magyarok k\u00f6z\u00fcl is szerepelnek t\u00f6bben a kisziv\u00e1rgott offshore-dokumentumokban. K\u00f6zt\u00fck van Matolcsy Gy\u00f6rgy unokatestv\u00e9re, Szemerey Tam\u00e1s is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[74,115,215,252,270],"ppma_author":[522],"class_list":["post-2012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-offshore-secrets","tag-csanyi-sandor","tag-gattyan-gyorgy","tag-matolcsy-gyorgy","tag-offshore","tag-panama-iratok","author-cap-andraspetho"],"authors":[{"term_id":522,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"cap-andraspetho","display_name":"AndrasPetho","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","description":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2012"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9439,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2012\/revisions\/9439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2012"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=2012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sp\u00e9der\u2019s businesses<\/h3>\n
Gatty\u00e1n\u2019s house<\/h3>\n
The art collector<\/h3>\n
The scandal<\/h3>\n