Tamás Leisztinger

Tamás Leisztinger, founder of the TriGránit real-estate development group, was once known as a businessman with left-wing ties, but by 2019 was being described as a NER-linked oligarch close to the Fidesz governing network. His companies repeatedly received non-refundable state grants, he entered the football-financing arrangement effectively mandatory for NER-connected business owners as head of football club DVTK, and he later sold the Hunguest hotel chain to Lőrinc Mészáros. At the end of 2022 the Hungarian state paid close to 4 billion forints for Ormosszén Zrt., a coal-mining company in which Leisztinger held a majority stake, in a deal whose terms the state asset manager MNV refused to disclose for months, citing disproportionate harm to business secrecy, until investigative outlet Átlátszó won a court case forcing disclosure. The case illustrates how even a businessman once seen as politically opposed to Fidesz became a beneficiary of opaque state spending under NER.