Socialists: Government bought Athletics Championships plot from bankrupt Quaestor ‘at a steal’

The opposition Socialist Party accused the government on Wednesday of purchasing a plot of land in Budapest at well below market price from a now-bankrupt brokerage, Quaestor.

Quaestor went bankrupt in 2015, leaving tens of thousands of small investors with massive losses.

László Szakács, the party’s deputy leader, told a press conference that

the Fidesz government had “reimbursed” a favoured few troubled Quaestor clients by buying the plot “at a steal” one-fifth of its market value with a view to building a stadium for the 2023 World Athletics Championships.

• Budapest to host 2023 World Athletics Championships
• Hungary offers guarantee to support Budapest bid for 2023 Athletics World Championships

István Kalmán-Pikó, who represents Quaestor clients complainants, told the same press conference that the state had bought the plot in central Budapest for 18 billion forints (EUR 54m), while its market value was 100-200 billion forints.

Szakács said

responsibility had still not been established for the 220 billion forints of losses affecting 32,000 investors.

He said only “a small circle” had benefited from compensation while 15,000 clients had been left high and dry.

Szakács and Kálmán-Pikó said all Quaestor’s former clients deserved full compensation.

UPDATE

The Prime Minister’s Office said in response that Szakacs and the Socialists were “wrong, distorting the truth and lying, as usual”.

“The Socialist Party is deliberately not telling the truth,” the PM’s Office said in a statement. “The Athletics Centre is not going to be built on the former Quaestor plot.”

The office said the state had purchased the plot in question from Hungarian property developer Wing on the basis of an official appraisal and in line with the relevant legal requirements.

Source: mti