Socialists call for progress in Quaestor compensation as victims hold demo

Budapest, April 7 (MTI) – The Socialists have again called on the government to make progress in compensating the victims of the Quaestor brokerage scandal after clients demonstrated in Budapest on Thursday.

More than 10,000 former Quaestor clients received notice letters with “zero balance” on them, which means that the Compensation Fund set up by the government will leave many people in the lurch, Laszlo Szakacs, a lawmaker for the Socialist Party, told a press conference by Parliament, where the demonstration was held. He criticised the prosecutor and the courts for engaging in a legal battle through the media last weekend, which he said only stalls resolution. Meanwhile 220 billion forints of Quaestor assets are still missing, which “no one talks about”. Victims of the failed brokerage “rightly demand that their claims are met,” he added, calling for a better indictment, more investigation into where the assets had gone and “real compensation for victims”.

Charges were raised in the case in February, in connection with Quaestor which went bankrupt last year after it was found to have sold some 150 billion forints (EUR 483.5m) of unsanctioned bonds.

The Socialist government aided the disgraced brokers, the ruling Fidesz party said in a statement in response to the Socialist Party’s comments. Fidesz said that the very same Socialists who were hypocritically demonstrating in connection with the brokerage scandals had aided and abetted “decades of financial corruption” by loosening regulations governing brokerages to the extent that brokers had been free to cheat ordinary investors.

“The Socialists are today, too, deceiving victims while having stood on the side of rogue brokers and banks,” the statement said. The Fidesz government put an end to decades of financial corruption and has set the market right while also compensating the victims of rogue brokers, it added.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters