The chairman of the Hungarian Paralympic Committee has been taken to court by dozens of para athletes over the alleged misappropriation of the Committee’s funds. Last Thursday, the police ordered a house search in more locations, and confiscated documents and storage medium. Several witness have been already interrogated in the case, but no suspect has been found, hirado.hu reported.
The scandal surrounding the Hungarian Paralympic Committee’s leadership broke out in early May, when it emerged that the organisation’s chairman Zsolt Gömöri had been granted HUF 3 million in the form of non-refundable support to pay off his private loan from the committee.
Although the Hungarian Paralympic Committee’s supervisory board had previously found every detail sufficient in the case, in late May, both cabinet chief János Lázár and Zsolt Borkai, the head of the Hungarian Olympic Committee, urged Gömöri to step down.
Earlier on 2 June, it emerged that the Budapest prosecution office had ordered an investigation against an unknown perpetrator concerning lawsuits filed against the Paralympic Committee’s chairman upon suspicion of misappropriation of funds and fraud. Investigators later confiscated documents and storage medium concerning the case, but no suspect has been found yet.
Eventually, Gömöri resigned on Wednesday. In his press release sent to MTI, he writes: “With the decision I have made, I wish to serve the progress we have achieved in recent years, as well as the conditions of tranquillity that is essential for our organisation to work successfully in the future.” According to the outgoing chairman, the most important task now is “to assess the present while building the future.”
Meanwhile, daily newspaper Népszabadság reported that Tamás Deutsch, who is currently the Committee’s vice chairman, could be made its interim leader.
Contrary to what has happened, Gömöri will present his report to the general meeting on 19 June, in which he will give a summary of the previous years.
based on the article of hirado.hu
translated by Gábor Hajnal
Source: hirado.hu
