For years, Endre Hamar was a close business partner of István Tiborcz, the son-in-law of the Hungarian prime minster. Hamar now became one of the first beneficiaries of the new European Union grant cycle, winning multiple public contracts.

Two EU investigations are being conducted into the state contracts that were given to Elios Innovatív under suspicious circumstances. If the wrongdoing is proven, Hungary could face financial penalties.

Dialogue for Hungary, an opposition party, filed the criminal complaint based on a recent article of Direkt36.

A company until recently co-owned by Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law has been awarded public contracts to improve street lighting in several cities. A Direkt36 investigation revealed that the price of the lamps was unusually high, which raised the budget significantly in many cities.

The company of Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law won public procurements worth hundreds of millions of forints with similarly written announcements. Until now, these announcements had been passing the government’s control without any problem, but now here is the first sign that this success story might come to a halt.

Direkt36’s investigation shows that the majority of public procurements won by Elios Innovatív included specific requirements that could have been met only by the company or – in some cases – just a very small circle of companies.

The prime minister has been saying harsh things about the EU and the West. What he does not talk about is that companies of his friends and his son-in-law are receiving a lot of money from there.