Farm ministry sues Socialist politician

Budapest, July 13 (MTI) – The farm ministry is suing deputy Socialist leader Zoltan Gogos, a former farm ministry official, and wants nearly half a billion forints (EUR 1.6m) of his assets to be frozen, daily Napi Gazdasag said on Monday.

The paper said the ministry accuses Gogos of having misappropriated funds by transferring almost half a billion forints to a non-profit association when he was farm ministry state secretary from 2006 to 2010.

The farm ministry said Gogos had signed a contribution agreement with the Leader Non-Profit Association without properly examining the criteria on which its partnership request had been made, Napi Gazdasag said. The ministry is seeking repayment of 483,253 forints.

Napi Gazdasag said the reason the ministry had filed the claim was because the Central Investigating Chief Prosecutor’s Office (KNYF) had closed a related investigation which only revealed that the association itself had misused 199 million forints of the received funds.

Gogos responded to the article, saying “the Fidesz government is trying to create a distraction to their plan to steal state land, and will discredit everyone who takes a stand against it”.

“I never committed any crime,” the politician said in a statement, noting that the Napi Gazdasag article said the KNYF had closed its investigation on the ground that no crime had been committed. Gogos said he would take legal action against anyone who suggested otherwise.

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