{"id":6005,"date":"2020-03-05T12:41:51","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T11:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.direkt36.hu\/?p=6005"},"modified":"2022-10-11T22:44:49","modified_gmt":"2022-10-11T20:44:49","slug":"foldeket-vett-utat-epitett-nagyon-nyomul-pakson-az-orban-rokonok-uzlettarsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/foldeket-vett-utat-epitett-nagyon-nyomul-pakson-az-orban-rokonok-uzlettarsa\/","title":{"rendered":"Businessman linked to the Orb\u00e1n family has expanded his footprint in city of Hungary\u2019s nuclear plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last November, the leaders of Paks, the town that is home to Hungary\u2019s only nuclear plant, proudly announced the completion of a bicycle lane that connects the town with Dunak\u00f6ml\u0151d, a neighboring settlement. Even J\u00e1nos S\u00fcli, the minister in charge of Paks nuclear power plant expansion, and the member of parliament representing the region attended the event. It was not mentioned at the ceremony, but the 2.5 kilometer-long lane cost one million euros more than it was originally planned, with the final cost reaching 2.3 million euros.<\/p>\n

The local government in Paks, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party, put a businessman called Roland Sebesty\u00e9n and his partner in charge of building the bicycle lane. Sebesty\u00e9n does not keep a high profile nationally, however, he had business relations with the family of Anik\u00f3 L\u00e9vai, the wife of Viktor Orb\u00e1n. His company called Real-Rent and another company linked to him called Amalfi Hung\u00e1ria won significant construction tenders in Paks. According to our calculations, the two companies \u2013 mainly on their own, and in two cases as consortium partners \u2013 received contracts in the value of 6.2 million euros in the past two and a half years in Paks.<\/p>\n

In addition to the high value of these contracts, the business successes of Sebesty\u00e9n are remarkable also for other reasons. On all occasions, Real-Rent and Amalfi Hung\u00e1ria won the Paks works in public tenders where participating companies were selected and invited by the local government. In several tenders, the majority of the competitors could be in some ways linked to Sebesty\u00e9n.<\/p>\n

The businessman also started a big real estate project in Paks. One of his companies purchased local lands, which the municipality later wanted to buy from him for a much higher price. The transaction, after the protest of some local politicians, fell through.<\/p>\n

Responding to Direkt36 questions, Sebesty\u00e9n said that he has been working as a \u201eclassic road construction expert\u201d for 20 years. He said it was natural for construction companies to win contracts in tenders and he always participated in these tenders in a legal way. It was just a coincidence that there are links between him and some of his competitors, he claimed. Other companies invited to the tenders did not reply to our inquiries. We also asked Sebesty\u00e9n about his relations to members of the Orb\u00e1n family but he did not consent to the publication of these answers.<\/p>\n

The local government in Paks said that it followed the law in all tenders and there were no legal objections in any of the procedures.<\/p>\n

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A residential area and a member of the Orb\u00e1n-family<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Roland Sebesty\u00e9n appeared around Paks in June 2016 when he sent a letter to J\u00e1nos S\u00fcli, at that time mayor of the town. He mentioned in his letter that he would like to build a residential area in Paks, spending 5.9 \u2013 8.8 million euros for real estate development.<\/p>\n

According to the webpage of the residential area<\/a>, Sebesty\u00e9n put a company called Centr\u00e1l-Ing Ltd. in charge of selling the apartments. One of the owners of Centr\u00e1l-Ing\u2019s daughter company is Imre \u00d6kr\u00f6s, who is part of the wider Orb\u00e1n family. \u00d6kr\u00f6s is the husband of Gizella L\u00e9vai, the sister of Anik\u00f3 L\u00e9vai, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s wife. In the past years, the \u00d6kr\u00f6s family has also been involved in other politically sensitive business dealings: Hungarian online news site 444.hu reported<\/a> in 2016 that businessmen with links to the family accumulated heavy debts for a state institution.<\/p>\n

The residential area is not yet ready, and there are currently only signs of construction preparations visible at the site.<\/p>\n

Sebesty\u00e9n also had direct connections with the Orb\u00e1n-family. In June 2016, he set up a company together with M\u00e1rk \u00c1d\u00e1m Szeghalmi, the son of Gizella L\u00e9vai. The seat of the company dealing with real estate development was in Budapest, but its name \u2013 Paks H\u00e1z Ltd. \u2013 suggested that they had plans to be active in Paks. The company registry court first rejected the company\u2019s registration for the lack of permission to use the name from the local government. Two days later, the notary in Paks provided the requested approval. However, the company had a short existence, the owners initiated its dissolution six months later.<\/p>\n

The project that was too much even for the Paks local representative<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sebesty\u00e9n had a third real estate project in Paks: in September 2016, he and a few of his partners set up a company called Atompark Ltd., in which he still has one-third ownership. Two months after its establishment, Atompark started concluding pre-contract agreements for the purchase of Paks real estates.<\/p>\n

According to a document seen by Direkt36 and signed by Sebesty\u00e9n, one of these pre-contracts is about Atompark purchasing a piece of land for approximately 5.9 euros per square meter. Ownership papers show that the purchases were successful in 2017 and Atompark acquired an area of a size of more than 8.6 hectares (almost 12 football fields). Direkt36 has not seen the sales contracts but calculating with this price for a square meter, the total value of the whole area reaches approximately 510 thousand euros.<\/p>\n

According to documents obtained by Direkt36, Sebesty\u00e9n used the legal services of Be\u00e1ta Blazsekn\u00e9 B\u00e1novics, the wife of the notary, who edited and signed the pre-contract agreement.<\/p>\n

Atompark purchased the area in 2017, while the local agreement declared it as an area suitable for construction, which increased the value of the whole property.<\/p>\n

Later, it was precisely this section which the local government selected for the establishment of a \u201cbusiness zone\u201d in the town. To implement the concept, it wanted to purchase Sebesty\u00e9n\u2019s real estate for the price of 54 euros per square meter according to the draft contract<\/a> published at the beginning of 2019. The total price would have been 5 million euros, which would have generated a significant profit for Sebesty\u00e9n.<\/p>\n

Mayor Szab\u00f3 P\u00e9ter, the successor of S\u00fcli who is also a member of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party, took the purchase of the real estate off the agenda without a vote at the last February session of the local government. Zolt\u00e1n Horv\u00e1th, who was an opposition member of the council at the time, told Direkt36 that local government members held a test vote at an informal discussion prior to the session. The council was split in the middle, meaning several Fidesz (the governing party) representatives also voted against the transaction.<\/p>\n

Successful applicant at public tenders<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Although unsuccessful with real estate deals, Sebesty\u00e9n\u2019s construction company Real-Rent Ltd. did well at local tenders. Sebesty\u00e9n founded the company with his sister in 2002 and has had several million euros in annual turnover.<\/p>\n

Real-Rent won its first Paks contract in the fall of 2018, and another four, typically road reconstruction works last year. With the exception of two cases when he applied together with consortium partners, his company was the sole winner of the contracts in the value of 4.3 million euros. In all cases, only invited firms could take part in the tenders.<\/p>\n

\"\"

P\u00e9ter Szab\u00f3 mayor of Paks and Roland Sebesty\u00e9n, Photo: telepaks.net<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201eThese procedures would not be unusual,\u201d Gabriella Nagy, head of public finances program Transparency International Hungary told Direkt36. Tenders based on invitations mean less administrative burden on a smaller local government than an open procedure, she said, adding that, however, if the proper supervision is missing, then this simplified procedure could also be misused.<\/p>\n

Direkt36 has found signs indicating that the companies invited to the tenders were linked to each other. In tenders where Sebesty\u00e9n won, Amalfi Hung\u00e1ria Ltd., which had business relations with Sebesty\u00e9n and its owner is the managing director of Sebesty\u00e9n\u2019s other company, was invited on two occasions. Amalfi Hung\u00e1ria itself won four road reconstruction works in Paks in recent years.<\/p>\n

Typically, the same companies were invited over and over to the tenders won by Real-Rent and Amalfi Hung\u00e1ria. Out of these, four had loose, indirect links to Sebesty\u00e9n or some of his businesses. One of them was K\u00e9tutas Ltd., the seat of which is located in the same village with 700 inhabitants in Veszpr\u00e9m county called Borzav\u00e1r, where Sebesty\u00e9n\u2019s company Real-Rent is also registered. The two addresses are only 350 meters away from each other. A company called Mapex-Bau Ltd. was also invited several times, one of its owners is also leading a firm which was co-owned by Sebesty\u00e9n\u2019s business partner. Sebesty\u00e9n told Direkt36 that these were just coincidences.<\/p>\n

A closed tender based on invitation was also used in the case of the bicycle lane mentioned at the beginning of this article. Real-Rent and a company called Solt\u00fat won the contract together, and Amalfi, as well as Mapex-Bau, were also invited. These firms did not submit an offer in the end. Strabag applied too, and Real-Rent and Solt\u00fat won with a better price-value ratio, even if the price was clearly not the most important criterion. The local government originally set the value of the work at 1.3 million euros, but the contract was then signed for 2 million euros, and the local government\u2019s modified budget from last year already included 2.3 million euros.<\/p>\n

Istv\u00e1n Barnab\u00e1s, a member of the Paks De\u00e1k Ferenc Association that represents the local opposition, raised the issue of expensive tenders at the session of the local council this January. He highlighted six tenders with increased expenses, two of these were won by Sebesty\u00e9n, and one of them was the bicycle lane project. At the session, Barnab\u00e1s recommended the revision of tender procedure rules, but mayor P\u00e9ter Szab\u00f3 rejected this by saying that the Paks rules \u201edo not differ from the Hungarian practice, they comply with all laws.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the local opposition regularly brings up Sebesty\u00e9n\u2019s name and his political connections, the businessman keeps a low profile in Paks. He only appeared in local television and newspaper with the mayor in reports about the signing of the contracts his company has won.<\/p>\n

For the Hungarian company data, we used the services of\u00a0Opten<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roland Sebesty\u00e9n has business relations with the family of Anik\u00f3 L\u00e9vai, the wife of PM Viktor Orb\u00e1n. Companies linked to him received contracts in the value of 6.2 million euros in Paks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":6003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[184,197,253,267,296,305,309],"ppma_author":[437],"class_list":["post-6005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-paksi-titkok","tag-kozbeszerzes","tag-levai-aniko","tag-okros-imre","tag-paks2","tag-sebestyen-roland","tag-suli-janos","tag-szeghalmi-mark-adam","author-andras-szabo"],"authors":[{"term_id":437,"user_id":13,"is_guest":0,"slug":"andras-szabo","display_name":"Andras Szabo","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/av_szabo_andras.png","url2x":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/av_szabo_andras.png"},"description":"[:hu]Andr\u00e1s nyolc \u00e9vig dolgozott \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00f3k\u00e9nt az Orig\u00f3n\u00e1l, \u00e9s t\u00f6bb \u00e9vet elt\u00f6lt\u00f6tt az Indexn\u00e9l \u00e9s a vs.hu-n\u00e1l is. A Direkt36-n\u00e1l az orosz-magyar kapcsolatokkal, a Fidesz-k\u00f6zeli \u00fczleti k\u00f6r\u00f6k tev\u00e9kenys\u00e9g\u00e9vel, \u00e9s az Orb\u00e1n-korm\u00e1ny d\u00f6nt\u00e9shozatal\u00e1nak folyamataival foglalkozik. 2011-ben G\u0151b\u00f6ly\u00f6s Soma-d\u00edjat, 2010-ben pedig Min\u0151s\u00e9gi \u00fajs\u00e1g\u00edr\u00e1s\u00e9rt d\u00edjat nyert, mindkett\u0151t az\u00e9rt a cikksorozat\u00e1\u00e9rt, amely a Gyurcs\u00e1ny-korm\u00e1ny egyik korrupci\u00f3gyan\u00fas ingatlanelad\u00e1s\u00e1t mutatta be.\r\n[:en]Andr\u00e1s worked eight years as a journalist at Origo, a then prestigious online news site, but also spent several years at Index and vs.hu news outlets. At Direkt36 he covers Russian-Hungarian relations, activities of business circles close to Fidesz, and political decision making processes of the Orb\u00e1n government. In 2011 he received the G\u0151b\u00f6ly\u00f6s Soma Award dedicated to investigative journalism in Hungary, and in 2010 he won the Quality Journalism Award, both for a series of articles that focused on a corruption case connected to the former Socialist-led government.[:]","first_name":"Andr\u00e1s","last_name":"Szab\u00f3","user_url":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6005"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9339,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions\/9339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6005"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/direkt36.exot.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=6005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}