A Pakistani sugar baron under investigation for money laundering. The head of a Lebanese bank on trial for financing Hezbollah. An Austrian company director accused of perjury. A wealthy Russian mayor’s wife whose husband is in jail for bribery.<\/p>\n
What do they have in common? Hungary has appointed them as honorary consuls to represent Hungarian interests in their home countries. This diplomatic position was designed to help well-connected, affluent and influential appointees to build relations between the two countries. They do not earn money with the position, but they get prestige, access to the diplomatic world and most importantly: privileges. Under international treaty, their archives and correspondence cannot be seized. Their consular bags of any weight and size are protected from searches.<\/p>\n
However, the system is broken, with honorary consuls often appointed because they know the right people and can pay their price, and not because of their achievements. After receiving the title no international organization monitors their work. This, combined with the privileges, opens the door to abuse of the position.<\/p>\n
Although most honorary consuls are presumably doing their jobs honestly, an international investigation \u2013 in which Direkt36 was the only Hungarian contributor to participate \u2013 led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and the US-based ProPublica shows that the world of honorary consuls is full of criminal records and controversial stories.<\/p>\n
The international team of journalists investigated thousands of honorary consuls and found more than 500 of them under investigation for suspected criminal offenses or abusing their positions in some way. They listed people suspected or convicted of arms dealing, drug trafficking, smuggling, money laundering, supporting terrorism, corruption, or other sanctioned offenses.<\/p>\n
In Hungary 68 honorary consuls represent other countries, and there are 267 honorary consuls representing Hungary’s interests worldwide. The number of Hungary\u2019s honorary consuls is growing dynamically despite a scandal that tarnished the reputation of the title twenty years ago. In 2003 a suspect in a highly publicized crime had managed to leave the country before his arrest by posing as the driver of an honorary consul using illegally obtained papers.<\/p>\n
As a result of the case, the then Socialist-led Foreign Ministry withdrew the privileges of the honorary consuls, who have since failed to regain them. Among those who now hold the title of honorary consul in Hungary is Jordanian businessman Zaid Naffa, who was flagged by the secret service as a national security risk. And there’s J\u00e1nos Veres, former finance minister under the Socialist governments, who is honorary consul to Moldova – in the small town of Ny\u00edrb\u00e1tor in the Szabolcs region.<\/p>\n
Most of the honorary consuls mentioned in our article and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade did not respond to our questions.<\/p>\n
ICIJ has been investigating the abusers of the honorary consular system for months. 160 journalists were involved to check thousands of honorary consuls from six continents around the world. To identify terrorist operatives and other honorary consuls accused of violation of law, the journalists reviewed court records, police reports and news archives.<\/p>\n
This was a one-of-a-kind investigation, as no international body oversees the consuls and most states do not check whether their appointees are worthy of the post. Many states do not even publish lists or biographies of their appointees, so it is almost impossible to track the number and activity of honorary consuls around the world.<\/p>\n
The international project, called Shadow Diplomats has found that there are at least 500 people who still hold or have held the title, and have been investigated for various crimes or have abused their position to support controversial causes.<\/p>\n
Among those are people suspected, accused or convicted of:<\/p>\n
57 Honorary consuls have been identified who were convicted while they still held the title. Many used their diplomatic credentials to avoid prosecution, tax audits, searches or even a simple parking fine. (For more details on the results of the international investigation, see this article<\/a>.)<\/p>\n ProPublica and ICIJ have also identified 9 honorary consuls who had been linked by various law enforcement agencies and governments to terrorist groups. Many of them were linked to Hezbollah, a Lebanese Shiite paramilitary organization.<\/p>\n One of them is the wealthy Lebanese banker, Adel Kassar<\/strong>, who represents Hungary as an honorary consul in Lebanon. Kassar is an influential figure in the Lebanese business world, and is the CEO of Fransabank, one of the largest banks in Lebanon. He has several Hungarian connections including family ties, operating the Hungarian airline company, Mal\u00e9v\u2019s branch in Beirut and heading the Kassar family\u2019s bank, Fransabank which had a division in Budapest for decades.<\/p>\n Adel and his brother, Adnan Kassar also received a Hungarian state award in 2013 for strengthening Hungarian-Lebanese relations.<\/p>\n Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n praised them, saying that Hungary understands the message of the East, that money and success are important, but \u201cit’s all worth nothing without friendship.\u201d Orb\u00e1n added that Hungary feels honored, to have many prestigious friends in the East.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n However, in 2019, families of US soldiers killed in Hezbollah terror attacks in Iraq filed a joint lawsuit in federal court in New York against Fransabank and a dozen other Lebanese financial institutions. The banks allegedly participated in financing terrorist acts organized by Hezbollah and Iran, helping the organization to obtain weapons and launder money, according to the lawsuit’s documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n Adel Kassar did not respond to Direkt36\u2019s or ICIJ\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n A year ago, Hungarian diplomacy in Karachi, Pakistan, gained a wealthy and influential supporter, when Makhdum Omar Shehryar<\/strong>, head of the RYK Group, one of the country’s major sugar-producing giants, was appointed as Hungary\u2019s honorary consul. In the Pakistani press, the businessman is sometimes referred to as one of the country’s sugar barons, but his influence is not just business related: his two brothers are also active politicians, serving as ministers in the central government and in the government of the Punjab region. We did not find any record of Shehryar’s previous connection to Hungary, but it was reported in the Pakistani press that the businessman was under investigation in Pakistan a few years ago.<\/p>\n Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency began investigating<\/a> him on suspicion of fraud and money laundering in 2020. It is suspected that members of a group of large sugar companies colluded to artificially inflate the price of sugar. Although stocks of sugar were lying unsold in their warehouses, according to FIA, they spread rumors of an imminent shortage of the product, creating an even greater demand for sugar. Investigators believe<\/a> they not only deceived consumers but also hid the profit in unrelated accounts.<\/p>\n The strategy was discussed in WhatsApp groups, including a representative of the RYK Group, FIA suspects. Authorities consider Shehryar one of the persons responsible<\/a>, along with several other businessmen and politicians involved in the sugar industry.<\/p>\n In addition, in 2020, an investigation was launched against Shehryar’s two brothers, both politicians, because their families’ fortunes \u201cballooned into billions<\/a>\u201d immediately after their political involvement, according to Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau (NAB).<\/p>\n The investigations are still ongoing, and Makhdum Omar Shehryar did not respond to Direkt36’s request for comment.<\/p>\n Elada Nagornaya<\/strong> used to be the honorary consul of Hungary in Nizhny Novgorod. In 2017, her husband Oleg Sorokin, mayor of the city, was arrested for bribery. Russian authorities accused Sorokin of accepting bribes<\/a> of up to $1 million. Nagornaya was not a suspect in the case, but Sorokin has since been sentenced to 10 years in prison for kidnapping and bribery.<\/p>\n Nagornaya has left the country with her family, Russian Kommersant reported<\/a> earlier. She was later prosecuted for tax evasion, but she settled<\/a> the debt by paying 215 million rubles (more than $3,500,000).<\/p>\n Her honorary consular title was terminated by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry in 2019, and there is no longer an honorary consul in Nizhny Novgorod to Hungary.<\/p>\n It is unclear whether Nagornaya’s dismissal is related to the case against her husband, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to Direkt36’s questions. However, Nagornaya sent a detailed reply and a document on her dismissal.<\/p>\n The document does not state the reason for the dismissal, but according to Nagornaya, her title was revoked because she fled the country as she \u201cfeared her children\u2019s and her own life\u201d and could not carry out her duties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n She stressed that she was not charged in the criminal case of her husband, who denies the charges to this day. According to Nagornaya, her family’s (not further specified) \u201csworn enemies\u201d have been trying to smear her and ruin her business for many years.<\/p>\n