Our investigation shows the controversial role Ágoston Gubicza, a businessman with close ties to government figures, has been playing in state-funded venture programmes.

Details from the EU audit, which investigated the spendings of hundreds of billions of forints on start-ups in Hungary

The business partner of Orbán’s friend had a factory, expected to be making 800 million HUF profit until the end of 2015. Eventually it made only 2 million. Its EU-funding was part of the very controversial Jeremie project.

(Magyar) A belső iratanyagból kiderül az is, hogy az EU olyan súlyos szabálytalanságokat talált, hogy többmilliárdos büntetést szabott ki.

Leaked documents show that the EU’s venture capital programme in Hungary has been undermined by rule violations and misuse of public money.

The company needed to show that they had done similar construction in the past so they brought a reference from Uruguay. But it was a lie.

A company co-owned by Győző Orbán Jr., the brother of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, received two EU grants this year.

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.

Public money was given to companies to make them stronger but many of them ended up in bankruptcy. A co-owner of one of these firms later was hired by the state to run one of the most important public companies.