Miklós Seszták

In spring 2016, the EU's Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) alerted Hungarian authorities to serious financial irregularities in EU-funded projects run by three Kisvárda-based microenterprises — Várda King Invent, Great Alexander, and King Kft. OLAF found that the projects' stated goals had not been achieved and that the actual beneficiary of the funding was a company belonging to Miklós Seszták, then serving as Minister of National Development, rather than the nominally supported firms. Of the total HUF 30 million in grants, OLAF calculated that HUF 25.5 million in damage was done to the EU budget. The Hungarian prosecution service, which had opened an investigation on suspicion of budgetary fraud, discontinued the case in January 2017, meaning no criminal proceedings followed the irregularities OLAF had identified. The case is notable because a sitting minister's own company profited from EU funds intended for unrelated small businesses, and Hungarian authorities closed the matter without holding anyone accountable.