Direkt36 has spent almost a year making a documentary about the business activities of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s family. We highlight the enrichment of István Tiborcz, the prime minister’s son-in-law, and recall the role played by public procurement contracts that EU inspectors found to be seriously irregular.

We also show the state support he received for his empire of luxury properties, financial and logistics firms, now partly run by the prime minister’s eldest child, Ráhel Orbán.

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The film tells the story of how this economic construction began back in the 1990s, and what role the long-standing alliance between Viktor Orbán and Lajos Simicska, a former ally of the prime minister, played in it.

The film builds on the work of several journalists who have spent years investigating the Orbán family’s business activities. In addition to Direkt36 staff, journalists from Válasz Online, Telex and Forbes and other media outlets have spoken about their investigations.

Apart from summarising the information previously uncovered, we offer a deeper insight than ever before into the luxury world that István Tiborcz and Ráhel Orbán have built. For example, for the first time in the Hungarian press, a hidden camera has given us access to the elite club in Buda, the Botaniq Budai Klub, which was opened by Tiborcz in 2023.

In the recording, a club employee talks about “illegal gambling” taking place at the venue.

Tiborcz’s company, the BDPST Group, which operates the club, wrote that they strongly deny that “illegal gambling took place in the BOTANIQ Buda Club”. They stated that the themed evenings at the club are “without real stakes, with chips and play money, for purely recreational purposes”.

István Tiborcz and Ráhel Orbán did not wish give an interview for this film, but in his written reaction, Tiborcz stressed that his success “is mainly due to the fact that I work with a good team, with excellent managers, with whom we make good business decisions”. He added: “I very much hope that I would be in the same place in business even if the prime minister were not my father-in-law, although my name would probably be much less well known”. He also said he does not discuss business with the Prime Minister.

He confirmed that they had received loans from state-backed banks for their projects, but said that “few other market players have carried out developments of this magnitude without state support”. Regarding the tax breaks received by his companies, he said that, contrary to previously published information, his group had not received tens of billions of forints, but a total of 2.6 billion forints.

The film was made by Direkt36’s Kamilla Marton, András Pethő and Dániel Szőke in collaboration with director Máté Fuchs, co-director Bálint Bíró and several other film professionals.

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Earlier this week, Magyar Nemzet, part of the government propaganda, accused Direkt36 of making this film as part of a “Ukrainian secret service operation” to discredit the Prime Minister. Direkt36 responded by pointing out that this was a lie, that the project, which started almost a year ago, was not influenced by anyone, either at home or abroad, and that it was not funded by Ukraine.

Illustration: Miklós Sebes