Hungarian football club financed with embezzled Australian dollar millions

The Budafoki MTE's players in jerseys with "Care Park" logo on them. Photo: facebook.com/BudafokiMTE

Robert Belteky, the ex-leader of Care Park, an Australian-based company is accused of AUD 10 million fraud. The former boss of Care Park ran the parking management company for more than 10 years. The company is not only known in Australia, as it has several subsidiaries in different countries, including Hungary. The owners of the company filed a report after they dismissed him.

The news of the accusation was spotted by the Hungarian news portal G7.hu in an Australian newspaper Herald Sun. Born in Australia of Hungarian parents, Robert Belteky led the company since 2009 until November 2022, when the company owners dismissed him for “gross and wilful misconduct”. They then filed a report accusing him of embezzling AUD 10 million from the company since 2012.

His connection to Hungarian football

Belteky started patronising the Hungarian football club Budafoki MTE in 2015, and since then they have made significant progress, reaching the Hungarian top league within a few years. As for the team’s financial situation, its revenues have also increased spectacularly. For example, between 2017 and 2021, its revenues increased fourfold, according to the approximately 100 pages long filed report. As G7 notes, the cash flows between Care Park’s Hungarian subsidiaries and the football club can indeed be verified by company documents. The documents show that the the club received AUD 1.9 million from the company in just 3 years.

In fact, Care Park owns the football club since 2019, replacing Belteky. However, it is alleged that the other company heads, apart from Belteky, were not aware of this.

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The embezzlement and misuse of company funds

According to the allegations, more than AUD 2.7 million of the embezzled sum went to his former football team. Another AUD 918,000 was transferred to Belteky’s Hungarian private account, most of which was allegedly used to pay the salaries of the football club’s players and other operational costs. However, there is no record of any payment to the players, and the accusers claim that he may have given this money in cash, which is difficult to prove. G7 points out that, at the same time, according to official records, Budafok spent the least on salaries among the Hungarian top-flight teams.

In addition, Care Park owners allege that Belteky transferred more than AUD 1 million to his wife and daughter. They were fictitiously employed by the company. On top of this, he also spent AUD 856 million of the company’s money on airline tickets, jewellery, watches, luxury hotels and cruises for himself and his family.

When contacted by the Herald Sun, Belteky’s daughter responded by saying “we have plenty of evidence to refute these repeated allegations, we are working on it with our lawyers”. Also, G7 contacted the football club, but they did not respond.
The Australian authorities have not yet taken action on the Care Park allegations.