October 25th, 2012 Hearing: Beach balls, Balloons, and Bouts

The BKV hearing on Thursday, October 25th provided various sorts of drama.

For starters, Miklós Hagyó, the primary defendant in the case continued in his persistent attempt to disprove the accusations against him from his principal accuser Zsolt Balogh. Although Balogh had seemingly made Hagyó’s task easier by previously admitting under oath that his accusations were falsely given, the indictment against Hagyó still stands.

During the hearing, Hagyó, the former deputy mayor of Budapest and socialist MP, made his way through an itemized list of dates and events connected to the accusations and infamous Nokia box story.  The former deputy mayor became emotional  when he berated the prosecution for omitting documents from the case file which, Hagyó claimed, would contradict the charge of misappropriation of public funds.  According to the defense, the documents in question displayed the financial relations between BKV, MKB (the Hungarian Central Bank), and various companies who received contracts from BKV.

Synergon and CCsoft have been two of the companies receiving much of the legal attention.  CCSoft was employed to create a passenger information system which would have consisted of overhead monitors displaying travel information at the stops within the Budapest metro system.

Zsolt Balogh, who in 2008 served as the interim CEO of the Budapest Public Transport Company while Hagyó was the political supervisor, accused Hagyó of forcing him and other employees to sign contracts such as the one with CCSoft.  Balogh originally stated the contracts were thriftless for BKV but personally or politically profitable for Hagyó.

Hagyó’s responded during the hearing on the 25th by presenting to the court a few items of BKK merchandise such as beach balls and balloons.  BKK, the Center for Budapest Transportation, is the parent organization of BKV.   According to Hagyó, he obtained the merchandise for free at a public relations event.  The former MP asked the court how the contract for the passenger information system was unnecessary spending of public money when one considers the beach balls and balloons.

According to Hagyó the bank records are not the only potentially important types of evidence which have been omitted by the prosecution.  He demanded to know from the prosecution why the directors of Synergon and CCSoft have not been questioned about their respective relationships with BKV and Miklós Hagyó.  According to the defendant, if he stands accused of forcing corrupt contracts with these companies and misappropriation of funds then why are bank records and other testimonies not in the case file.

Upon hearing this, the judge requested that this evidence be presented to the court.


Source: http://thehagyocase.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/october-22nd-2012-hearing-beach-balls-balloons-and-bouts/