Several leading members of the Budapest expat business community have been given their marching orders by UPC Hungary’s parent company after an internal audit allegedly revealed they had handled company funds wastefully and unethically. According to a detailed report in Index.hu, the cull of expat and Hungarian management the audit commissioned by the Nasdaq-listed parent company Liberty Global found that top management had struck deals with outside companies they had interests in and ran up large expense accounts.
The portal says law firm White & Case raised eyebrows over several deals involving Chairman Nimród Kovács, who is thought to own several companies in the “cable communications sector” to which he gave lucrative contracts, while his wine business is frequently advertised on UPC-owned channels, including Sport1. High-tech portal HWSW adds that one manager took his entire family to the Beijing Olympics on the company account, while others broke company rules by regularly flying first class.
The cable company increased profits by 29% a year since 2006 and made rapid progress in the IT telephone and Internet markets, which the portal said allowed management “to get carried away.”
We know full well that by and large, Hungarians are kleptomaniacs. But now it seems that kleptomania is in the air or in the drinking water supply in Hungary, as some non-kleptomaniac foreigners who end up working in Hungary by some weird happenchance soon turn into keloptomaniacs themselves. A bona-fide medical anomaly, it seems…
I’m Hungarian and I’m not a thief. On the other hand I saw many foreigners in Hungary who are not honest in business at all. Fraud, theft, you name it. I think Donizelli’s statement would deserve some action from a moderator.
Didn’t Donazelli claim to be Magyar in a previous post?
“I’m Hungarian and I’m not a thief.”. Funny – they all say that! It’s
not me, it’s the jews, or the gypsies, or Fidesz, or the foreigners.
Quartermass, you are 100% on the spot. “Hungarian,” the article I was commenting on talks about how foreigners in Hungary steal stuff, highlighting a case involving Liberty Global and its Hungarian daugher company, UPC. Your attempted ‘explanation’ that only foreigners steal in Hungary and that they are allegedly a bad influence on the locals is rather childish. Are you following the domestic news, Friend?
People have been stealing since time immemorial. So do the Hungarians. However, nobody in Central/Eastern Europe steals to the extent than Hungarians do, apparently. Which may be the simple explanation why all nations neighboring Hungary are doing markedly better than Hungary does, with the sole exception of Ukraine.
Hungarians have been blaming someone else for all of their troubles and problems for over 1100 years, let’s face it. First, it was the Mongolians who have chased them away from the homeland. Then it was the Huns, Tatars, Turks and Ottomans, Hapsburgs, Russians, Germans, Soviets, soon to be followed by the Americans. After all, Hungary has even declared war on the United States of America, and did so not just once but twice!!! The blame goat flavor of the month now are the devil Western European nations and multinational companies. And let’s not forget everyone who has ever lent money to Hungary. They did it, yeah!!!
Stay tune for what next year brings as the resident evil enemy of Hungary… ;~))
It’s not really stealing, is it now. Given an opportunity, and lack of respect for the money that belongs to others, look at all the major world banks and tell me their top managers have not taken from, mislead, or (even now) conned all, including people of trust (commonly known as politicians). Steal now or forever have it taken from you!!!
Donizelli is spot on. Hungarians are masters in complaining and finger-pointing. They believe they are a great nation, well, history says otherwise. Their “empire” ruled over Europe’s poorest and most illitterate people like slavs, and did not bring them no good, as seen in the following 100 years. How can you call that an empire? Their ridiculous claim of a “Great Hungary” says it all. If only they were more humble and realistic, they could even become civilized one day. But do not hold your breath, it may take centuries.
You are all missing the point that UPC’s fearless leader Nimrod Kovacs is a born Hungarian who escaped in his late teens and went back to Hungary. The rest of the mignions under him just followed his corrupt example. He also at one point had his girlfriend as head of UPC Hungary, until his entire management team threatened to quit. Then he placed her as head of his Hungarian wine company, when she neither knew or enjoyed wine. And that is just the tip of the iceberg—which is under complete meltdown.
Say it isn’t so Joe….
I agree with Joe that the point is Nimrod Kovacs, however I
would disagree with his ref. of fearless leader. The only thing
about Nmrod Kovacs that was fearless was his ego! His position,
sitting high and mighty at the top of UPC CEE provided him with
a power trip. Now this position has been removed, he has no
power and his status has been reduced to that of a thief in full
media limelight – LOL.
Im just surprised that it took so long for Liberty Global to
initiate such an investigation given that Nimrod Kovacs has been
widely promoting and fronting his wine company for many years
(when he should have been running upc). Furthermore, this guy
is out there widely publicizing his significant wealth, (something
like Hungary’s 110th richest person) when his salary is in the
region of a $1-million. So where was his cash coming from to
create this wealth? Well, we all know the answer now – the UPC
till!
On top of all this abuse of power the story of his girlfriend being
placed into positions by him that she did not have the capability
to fulfill both at upc and wine company is again very amusing.
Apologies for being vulgar but it certainly gives support to that
old adage – its not who you know, but who you blow.
Jealousy is a pretty ugly disease! Its unfortunate that people feel entitled to pass judgement on subjects which they are not fully informed of. Nimrod Kovacs has created tremendous value for Liberty Global in Central and Eastern Europe.
I understand that Nimrod has been with UPC for a
very long time. I first knew of him around 2000.
My guess is that, as far as Nimrod is concerned,
he feels hard done by. Why did it start. The
parent organisations is a fault because of lack of
oversight and governance. In the beginning they
turn a blind eye to some of the inconsistencies
and where thinking along the lines that growth is
“King” and not really asking if this type of
growth was possible or sustainable. In this sense
they were naive;but the world has grown up now and
leaders should be made accountable.
Its interesting that this type of behaviour is
prevalent in the emerging market
telecommunications sector. I have seen many MD,s,
chairman and CEO,s start going of on the deep end
once they get to this level of power;where day to
day decisions are generally not questioned. And
it always seems to start at around the point when
the girlfriend gets involved or interested in the
business. There is a well know quote about all
men are “D#&@>đßĐ$” well I would say Power &
Girlfriends => Loss of Political Awareness (of
what is working and what is not working) that got
them into the position in the first place.
History is full of big examples demonstrating that
what happened here is not unique. What is unique
is that the parent company and the board was not
able to read the warning signs until someone below
blew the whistle! I suspect this time they
listened mainly because of the climate in which we
live in.
Huh? What did you say?
Billy, no jealousy here. What good Nimrod did at UPC is irrelevant, the point and discussion is about the facts that are out there in public domain i.e. this article and the others in the press about what he did!!! My judgement is about the facts.
Hey, Retro Jackasses: this article is dated 11 March 2009. This here now is 24 July 2009. Go, get a life already.