NBH scandal – Socialist win court case against central bank over property purchases

Budapest, July 7 (MTI) – The National Bank of Hungary (NBH) is obliged to publish material concerning its property acquisitions under a binding court decision passed on Thursday, Socialist MP Sándor Burány told a press conference.

Burány had sued the central bank to get access to reports made for its supervisory board concerning the purchases. The bank must make these available within 15 days.

Referring to documents the bank published in wake of an earlier suit, Burány said that most properties had been appraised by the same firm, and at a significantly higher price than the company’s initial quote. The appraisals are questionable because a quarter of them are “quotes from the internet with no indication of the source”, Burány said.

He noted that one of the NBH’s properties, the Eiffel Palace in central Budapest, had been appraised by an international company with the involvement of Justice Minister László Trócsányi’s law firm. The purpose, according to the central bank’s requirements, was not to get the best price for taxpayers’ money but to maximise its investment value, he argued.

Source: MTI