election 2022

Vice-president of a Hungarian porn tycoon’s new political party does business with a wealthy Russian family in Budapest

A new political party was recently founded by billionaire businessman György Gattyán, and his business partner, Viktor Huszár, who has been appointed as vice-president. We’ve traced the business network behind him, and found out that the new party’s vice-president has several business ties to a wealthy Russian family, the Rahimkulovs. Ruslan Rahimkulov plays an important role in the recent Budapest City Hall scandal as well.

György Gattyán, Hungary’s sixth richest man, decided to found a political party a few months before the 2022 parliamentary elections. He registered his party, called the Megoldás Mozgalom (Solution Movement), at the end of last year. According to his statements, he wants to defeat Viktor Orbán with a two-thirds majority.

György Gattyán owes a huge fortune mainly generated by a webcam porn website. He is also one of the founders of Teqball, from where he selected one of his party’s vice-presidents, Viktor Huszár.

Many believe that Hungary’s ruling party Fidesz is behind Gattyán, as the billionaire’s new political party did not participate in the 2021 opposition primaries, and they currently have no Facebook posts despite the fact that their campaign focus on digitalisation. In addition, Viktor Huszár, one of the vice-presidents of his new party is in business with the wealthy Russian family Rahimkulovs, who played a key role in the so-called Budapest City Hall scandal.

In this scandal, heavily promoted by the pro-government part of Hungarian press, according to anonymous scandal-mongers, Gergely Karácsony, mayor of the capital wanted to sell the town hall. The Budapest mayor is one of the leading figures of the united opposition to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

The case, which erupted last autumn, is currently being investigated to determine whether the opposition Budapest City Council was in collusion to buy the City Hall, or whether the leaker of the footage was trying to compromise the mayor and former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai before the spring elections.

In early January, Gergely Karácsony, the mayor of the capital, published a Facebook post claiming that Fidesz and Orbán family accountant Gyula Gansperger lured Gordon Bajnai to the office of one of the Rahimkulov investments, the former Láng Machine Factory on Váci út. Gordon Bajnai claims that the audio recording made in the office is being used in a manipulated form by the government-friendly press to discredit the capital’s leadership.

The former prime minister was met by a paparazzi photographer, and according to photos released for the meeting, he was at 152-158 Váci út. Four people met at the venue, Ruslan Rahimkulov, his business partner Péter Zentai, Gyula Gansperger (who organised the meeting), and Gordon Bajnai.

The former Láng Machine Factory is the site of a gigantic government-backed real estate development project. The more than 8-hectare site will be a HUF 150 billion investment, which the government (shortly after the infamous Bajnai meeting) classified as a priority project, which as such is exempt from the town planning review procedure and can bypass national and district building regulations.

We have mapped out the network of companies behind Viktor Huszár: the new party vice-president is linked to the Rahimkulovs as well, through several business links. SouthBlaze Kft. is located at Váci út, owned 50 percent by Viktor Huszár and Rudolf Márton Péter (V152 Property Kft.), 25 percent by Greennovatív Kft. owned by Ruszlan Rahimkulov and 25 percent by Peter’s Consulting Kft. owned by Péter Zentai.

Gergely Karácsony concluded from the context outlined here that the City Hall scandal, presented by the pro-government press, may have a Russian intelligence thread background, since the Rahimkulovs are close to the Russian government. Some come to a similar conclusion about György Gattyán’s new political party, what could mean Russian interference in the 2022 Hungarian elections.

Written and translated by Szilvia Zsilák. The original, more detailed Hungarian version of this article can be found here. Cover photo: Viktor Huszár greets Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in 2016 – source: Viktor Huszár / Facebook.

Subscribe to Atlatszo English newsletter

* indicates required


Support independent investigative journalism in Hungary, become a patron of Atlatszo on Patreon!

Share: