Oligarchopedia: István Kocsis

István Kocsis worked a lot to achieve the title of oligarch, and he almost became one but apparently it wasn’t his fault he eventually didn’t succeed. He is included in Atlatszo.hu’s Hungarian Oligarchopedia because his example demonstrates the fact that if someone is industrious enough and maintains good relations with real oligarchs then nothing’s impossible for him. In 2002 Sándor Csányi, OTP Bank’s president said Mr. Kocsis was “a good person”. Good person most probably referring to the fact that Mr. Kocsis helped the Hungarian economic elite during the country’s transformation into democracy. He was the one who led the privatisation of a conglomerate of 13 state companies of strategic importance. As a result of this he was able to obtain several high-profile positions in state companies later on; two of his most remarkable acts being the CEO of the state-owned electricity works MVM (2005-2008) and of the Hungarian capital’s public transportation company BKV (2008-2011). At MVM he was involved in shady offshore deals together with fellow oligarch László Kapolyi. (Atlatszo.hu’s investigations on the MVM case are published here in Hungarian.) Mr. Kocsis resigned from BKV in the midst of a scandal which broke out because of extremely high bonus payments to executives. At the moment, thanks to his friend Mr. Csányi, he is the managing director of an OTP Bank branch and is sitting on the board of directors of the bank itself.

Proceed to the Hungarian Oligarchopedia.
Read the full profile of Mr. Kocsis in Hungarian here.