Defendants Confess in BKV Trial; Balogh Confirms the Information System is Still Effective

On Tuesday, the Kecskemét Tribunal saw the return of the trial of the Budapest Transit Company (BKV).  This was the first hearing of 2013.

Of the 15 defendants in the case, Dr. Iván Miklós Horváth and Tünde Buday provided testimonies regarding a 2007 contract between BKV and Optimismo Ltd.

According to the indictment, on February 1^st, 2007 Horváth, who was a legal representative of BKV, “persuaded” former CEO Attila Antal to enter into an “unnecessary” contractual agreement with Optimismo.  The contracted work worth 19,200,000.00 HUF involved technical inspection of BKV’s photocopiers.

The prosecution claims that no work was ever completed according to the terms of the contract.  Instead, the agreement actually offered the financial means to fulfill an unofficial “severance” agreement between BKV and its former CEO Aba Botond.

Buday, who was the owner of Optimismo, stated in court that she never assisted in the contracted work.  Another employ obliged to the contracted terms, and then Buday paid the employ from the 19.2 million forint.

In a previous hearing, Attila Antal admitted his guilt in relation to the Optimismo contract.  According to him, the contracted work was never fulfilled.

Buday, who is accused of document forgery for signing the contract completion report, denied her guilt in addition to an accusation of complicity in misappropriation of funds.

Horváth did not offer any additions to his investigation testimony.  Instead, he objected to the wording of the formal indictment.  In Horváth’s opinion, the accusations made against him are too vague and responding to them is “impossible.”  He added that the crimes of which he is accused occurred while he was abroad.  He confirmed this statement by providing his passport to the court.

At the end of the hearing, Zsolt Balogh, the fourth defendant in the case, provided photos for the court which displayed the controversial passenger information system still in operation.

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