Private lawsuit against MOL’s Hernadi to continue in Dec

Budapest, October 14 (MTI) – A case against Zsolt Hernadi, president-CEO of Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, will continue at an appeals court in December, daily Magyar Nemzet said on Tuesday, citing information received from the Budapest appeals court.

At the end of May, a Budapest court dropped the case against Hernadi in a non-binding ruling.

The case was pursued by a private individual, a MOL shareholder and also a former MOL employee, against Hernadi after the Hungarian state prosecution rejected the claim. MOL was not a party to the lawsuit.

The plaintiff charged Hernadi with international bribery and fraud causing significant financial damages. She claimed to have lost 28 million forints (EUR 92,500) on MOL stock after the publication of allegations that MOL had acquired a stake and management rights in Croatian peer INA through bribery.

Hernadi’s legal representative said at the time that they trusted the Croatian court would not disregard the Hungarian court’s ruling.

The Zagreb county court said on June 10 that charges of bribery and organised crime against Hernadi, as pressed by Croatian anti-graft authorities, have been proven substantial. Croatia’s anti-corruption prosecutor’s office USKOK raised charges against Hernadi in March under suspicion that he had bribed former Croatian PM Ivo Sanader with 10 million euros to obtain a majority stake in MOL’s Croatian counterpart INA.

According to Hernadi’s legal representatives, the charges are unfounded and a sentence concerning the MOL chief cannot be passed in absentia.

Photo: civilhetes.hu

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