Disgraced broker Kulcsar sentenced to 6.5 years in prison – UPDATE

Budapest, December 29 (MTI) – Attila Kulcsar, the former broker of K+H Equities, on Tuesday received a prison sentence of six years and six months and a fine of 230 million forints (EUR 730,000) for embezzlement and other crimes.

The ruling was passed in a re-trial by the Municipal Court of Budapest and it is appealable. Bank executive Tibor E Rejto and businessman-journalist Tamas Forro were acquitted in the retrial.

Kulcsar was engaged in a multi-year court case into what was seen as one of the biggest party financing scandals in Hungary’s history. The scandal emerged in 2003, when Kulcsar was charged with embezzlement, money laundering, corruption, possessing stolen goods and serving as an accessory to crimes.

The prosecution charged Kulcsar with investing 23 billion forints from clients’ deposits without authorisation between 1998 and 2003. The prosecution said clients lost 8 billion forints over Kulcsar’s unlawful handling of their deposits. Some of Kulcsar’s victims were state companies and local governments, the prosecution said.

Kulcsar was first indicted in 2005. In 2008 the Budapest court sentenced Kulcsar to 8 years in prison and a fine of 230 million forints in a first-instance ruling. After several appeals, the case was referred to the Budapest Court of Appeals in 2010. The court threw out the first-instance ruling and ordered a retrial.

The judge said on Tuesday that Kulcsar had given contradicting testimonies throughout the trial and “changed his defence strategy in terms of which charges he was willing to confess to” several times. The judge said Kulcsar had tried to “take control” of the trial, adding, however, that several of his accounts had turned out to be accurate and consistent with other pieces of evidence.

Kulcsar was also sentenced on one count of fraud. He confessed to having bilked clients out of a total of 120 million forints to make up for the money he had misplaced earlier.

Out of the 18 defendants, secondary defendant Csaba Kerek was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison for embezzlement while several others were handed prison sentences of 2 years or less. Some defendants were given suspended prison sentences. Several defendants were ordered to pay fines ranging from 150 million forints to 250 million forints.

The judge was scheduled to finish reading out the reasoning behind the sentence later in the evening, after which the defence and the prosecution will be allowed to officially appeal the ruling.

UPDATE

Kulcsar ruling not binding – court
2015. December 29. 19:16

Tuesday’s first-instance ruling awarding a six-and-a-half-year prison sentence to former broker Attila Kulcsar is not binding, and both the prosecution and the defence will appeal the municipal court’s decision, the court’s press department said.
This means that the cases of each of the 18 defendants will be heard by an appeals court.

Kulcsar, a former broker of K+H Equities, on Tuesday received a prison sentence of six years and six months and a fine of 230 million forints (EUR 730,000) for embezzlement and other crimes.

The ruling was passed in a re-trial by the Municipal Court of Budapest and it is appealable. Bank executive Tibor E Rejto and businessman-journalist Tamas Forro were acquitted in the retrial.

Kulcsar was engaged in a multi-year court case into what was seen as one of the biggest party financing scandals in Hungary’s history. The scandal emerged in 2003, when Kulcsar was charged with embezzlement, money laundering, corruption, possessing stolen goods and serving as an accessory to crimes.

The prosecution charged Kulcsar with investing 23 billion forints from clients’ deposits without authorisation between 1998 and 2003. The prosecution said clients lost 8 billion forints over Kulcsar’s unlawful handling of their deposits. Some of Kulcsar’s victims were state companies and local governments, the prosecution said.

Kulcsar was first indicted in 2005. In 2008 the Budapest court sentenced Kulcsar to 8 years in prison and a fine of 230 million forints in a first-instance ruling. After several appeals, the case was referred to the Budapest Court of Appeals in 2010. The court threw out the first-instance ruling and ordered a retrial.

The judge said on Tuesday that Kulcsar had given contradicting testimonies throughout the trial and “changed his defence strategy in terms of which charges he was willing to confess to” several times. The judge said Kulcsar had tried to “take control” of the trial, adding, however, that several of his accounts had turned out to be accurate and consistent with other pieces of evidence.

Kulcsar was also sentenced on one count of fraud. He confessed to having bilked clients out of a total of 120 million forints to make up for the money he had misplaced earlier.

Out of the 18 defendants, secondary defendant Csaba Kerek was sentenced to 3 years and 9 months in prison for embezzlement while several others were handed prison sentences of 2 years or less. Some defendants were given suspended prison sentences. Several defendants were ordered to pay fines ranging from 150 million forints to 250 million forints.

Photo: MTI

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