Customs and Finance Guard uncovers ring suspected of laundering billions of forints

Hungary’s Customs and Finance Guard (VP) on Tuesday said it had uncovered a ring suspected of laundering billions of forints.

The ring is suspected of laundering about HUF 10bn and defrauding tax authorities of HUF 3bn, said deputy chief of VP’s criminal command Zsolt Frohlich. The operation was uncovered in a raid of more than 30 locations with the participation of 260 VP officials as well as local police, he added.

The size of the raid was justified considering many of the suspects were carrying weapons and there was also the danger of evidence being destroyed, Mr Frohlich said.

About HUF 6.5bn of the money laundered and HUF 2bn of the tax fraud was uncovered at a company that gets much of its revenue from state orders, he said without naming the company.

MTI learnt the company was Eclipse Informatikai Rendszerhaz, which won an unannounced negotiated public purchase procedure to make changes to Hungary’s central vehicle authentication system and operate the system for four years for net HUF 4.95bn at the end of 2009.

The authorities seized a large number of documents and other data in the raids. They also seized some HUF 30m in cash and nine cars, among them a Porsche and a Ferrari.