According to Hungarian press reports, 900 million forints (€2.33 million) of renovation money meant for the famed Széchenyi Chain Bridge in Budapest ended up in the private account of ex-lawyer Mór Vig, who is the brother of Dávid Víg, leader of Amnesty International Hungary.
Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) may also investigate whether transfers were made to the lawyer’s account after the lawyer was banned from practicing.
Private television channel Atv.hu reported on Monday that over a period of two years, between November 2020 and July 2022, the company A-Híd Zrt. may have transferred 1.4 billion forints (€3.62 million) to Sunstrike Hungary Kft., a law firm that was banned from practice. Subsequently, 900 million forints of this amount was transferred to Mór Vig’s private account and to his lawyer’s escrow account. According to Atv.hu, it is suspected that the transfers to the accounts linked to Mór Vig were typically made on the same days as the money was received by Sunstrike Kft. from A-Híd Zrt. and the money was withdrawn from the accounts in cash within a short period of time afterward.
These transactions are being investigated by NAV in an account fraud criminal case against the ex-lawyer involving hundreds of millions of forints. In November last year, the NAV raided A-Híd Zrt.’s office, among other locations, in this case.
According to a legal source speaking to Magyar Nemzet, Vig should on the one hand have closed his account, and if he had not done so, he would have acted improperly. On the other hand, the attorney escrow account receives funds for a specific purpose, which are entrusted to an attorney for a period of time, such as for real estate purchases. If in Vig’s case this was not the case, and if the lawyer withdrew the funds for his own purpose, this would be a serious offense, known as embezzlement.
