Corruption in Hungary: Bribery charges raised against four in Alstom case

Public investigation prosecutors have raised charges against four men, including a senior Alstom official, for bribery in a case involving a 2005 public procurement for the purchase of metro trains which was won by a consortium led by the French company.

The Alstom official is charged with bribery in the range of millions of euros in the case involving Budapest transport company BKV purchasing trains for the M2 and M4 metro lines, according to a statement on Wednesday by public investigations prosecutor Imre Keresztes.

To make the payments in 2007 and 2009, Alstom signed three fictitious advisory contracts with Danish and Austrian companies that assisted in transferring payments totalling 8,463,643 euros, Keresztes said.

The prosecutor’s office interviewed six suspects. The procedure was dropped in the case of two people and charges were raised against four, including two Hungarian citizens, one Austrian and one American, the statement added.

The investigation was ordered in January 2011 and was initially carried out by the rapid-response police national bureau of investigation, but the chief public prosecutor’s office transferred it to the public investigation prosecutors in September 2016.