Alstom money was transferred to bank account of former prime minister’s wife

Budapest, April 27 (MTI) – A large portion of 597,000 euros French engineering company Alstom paid in 2007-2008 to a consultancy owned by former prime minister Peter Medgyessy ended up on the bank account of his wife, daily Magyar Idok reported, citing a Hungarian investigation.

Britain’s Serious Fraud Office recently charged the UK head of French engineering company Alstom with corruption and conspiracy in connection with train contracts for the Budapest metro.

The paper earlier reported that Alstom transferred 259,000 euros in consulting fees on the basis of a contract with AssistConsult, indirectly owned by Medgyessy and his wife, on March 30, 2007, and another 338,000 euros on January 22, 2008.

The paper reported today that entire sum was transferred to a family-run enterprise, M.P. Europa Tanacsado and then invested for a number of years. Subsequently, several payments were made into the bank account of Medgyessy’s wife, Katalin Csaplar.

Earlier Medgyessy confirmed that a company associated with him had been contracted to Alstom. Index quoted the former prime minister as saying that the money constituted revenue after which the firm had paid taxes. Medgyessy did not deny the size of the reported fee.

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