Offshore education company accredited by the Ministry for National Economy

It looks like the Hungarian government does not take its war on “offshore knights” so seriously at all. The Ministry for National Economy accredited the Budapest-based limited company Conforg as an official provider of compulsory education for accountants. Conforg turns out to be partially owned by the Gibraltar-based Esteem Holdings Limited. The usual business of Conforg includes giving lectures on offshore topics such as tax optimization, the Austrian bank secrecy and combining Hungarian companies with offshore ones. Conferences organized by Conforg are regularly attended by prominent members of the Ministry for National Economy.

The compulsory education for accountants changed as of 1 January 2013. Accreditation by the Ministry for National Economy became a requisite. The educational organizations must meet several technical requirements and may not have any public debt. In addition, at least 3 years of experience in the education of accounting is required. However, the ownership of the company is not examined by the Ministry. Consequently, even companies with completely non-transparent ownership structures can qualify.

Read this article in Hungarian here.