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Former ‘pope of night clubs’ who bribed officials sentenced to prison, fined
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A Hungarian businessman and night-club owner and his associates who have been found guilty of bribing high-ranking officials to turn a blind eye to their activities and business shortcomings have been sentenced to prison and fined.
A Budapest court on Thursday sentenced László Vizoviczki to seven years in prison and fined him 108 million forints (EUR 305,000) for serial bribery and misusing confidential official information.
Vizoviczki and his accomplices were charged in 2012 with bribing officials of local authorities and law enforcement to turn a blind eye to Vizoviczki’s business activities encompassing restaurants and night clubs.
He also bribed them to put his competitors under increased scrutiny.
Alongside Vizoviczki, 22 people were charged, including a former local council member, several high-ranking former police and customs officers, a former fire brigade captain and a former public health official.
The charges were brought in 2014, but due to extreme case overload the procedure resumed only in the autumn of 2019.
In the new procedure, Vizoviczki and seven co-defendants pleaded guilty to the charges. However, Vizoviczki’s defence has decided to appeal the sentence and the prosecution is mulling doing the same.