Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has on numerous occasions used a Bombardier luxury private jet to attend football matches, trips organised by an oligarch who won a streak of lucrative state contracts, Hungarian media reported on September 25. Investigative news site Atlatszo tracked the flight pattern of the jet to a luxury yacht, which could be owned by Orban's close friend.

Opposition parties have launched a complaint and initiated a parliamentary procedure against Orban, as MPs are obliged to report valuable gifts in their annual wealth declarations. 

Orban used the Bombardier Global 6000 luxury private jet to fly to Bulgaria to root for his favourite team MOL-Vidi (formerly Videoton) which played a qualifier against Ludogorec. 

The Hungarian PM, an avid football fan, also used the jet to fly to Russia to watch two World Cup games. On June 21, Orban saw Croatia beat Argentina live in Nizhny Novgorod and just over three weeks later he was invited for the final in Moscow, where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The price of the Bombardier Global 6000, which is registered in Austria and is parked at Budapest Airport, is around $60mn and it costs $5,000-10,000 an hour to operate, Atlatszo reported.

The flights were organised by Hungarian oligarch Istvan Garancsi, who is the co-owner of construction group Market and the co-owner of Videoton FC football club.

An Orban spokesperson openly acknowledged the trips. “Viktor Orban is used to attending matches of MOL-Vidi FC. During the travels, he is the guest of the owner of the football club and he travels the same way as other guests of MOL-Vidi FC. This has been the case so far and this will happen in the future,” according to the statement.

Garancsi is amongst the new class of oligarchs, who came to dominate public tenders after the very public falling out between the former cashier of Fidesz, Lajos Simicska, and the prime minister in February 2015. Companies owned by Garancsi have scored well in stadium construction projects in the past few years, as the Orban government spent hundreds of billions on football infrastructure. 

Market’s reference work was the construction of the Groupama Arena, the home to Hungary's most popular football team, Ferencvars for HUF20bn in 2014. Its most valuable project was the construction of the Duna Arena for HUF43bn for the 2017 World Aquatics Championship. Market's revenues surged to HUF107bn last year and it booked HUF6.3bn in profit. Garancsi's wealth is estimated at HUF48bn.

Hungary's elite on board

The other thread in the Atlatszo story revolves around a luxury yacht, which also hosted top government officials and businessmen. The first photos of Hungary's second richest man, Lorinc Meszaros, on board the €21mn ship were revealed in July in the Italian port of Porto di Ischia. Lady Mrd is owned by a Maltese company known for acting as a proxy for other companies. 

CCTV cameras caught a flurry of activity around the yacht in the port of Rijeka from August 20, when a man resembling Meszaros and his wife were on board the yacht. Photos taken at Budapest Airport show Meszaros's daughter and the owner of the Hungarian football club exiting the small jet terminal.

In the past few months, the jet flew to several other destinations as well, including Lisbon, Crete, Malta, Milan, Münich, Prague, Sicily and Faro in Portugal, according to Atlatszo.

Meszaros, the former gas-fitter who rose to Hungary's elite thanks to his close friendship with Orban, was caught on film on another luxury yacht two years ago, which was owned by the same company as Lady Mrd. 

Atlatszo tracked the movement of yacht and the Bombardier Global 6000 and found that the two crossed each other on several occasions. The private jet took off from Budapest Airport several times and landed exactly at destinations where Lady Mrd was anchored at the time.

Photos taken in Opatija, Croatia show the chairman of Hungary’s state railway Robert Homolya, government commissioner Erno Kovacs and Meszaros’ business partner Laszlo Szijj on board the luxury yacht. Szijj's company Duna Aszfalt has been the major beneficiary of EU-funded road construction tenders.

Homolya's business affairs have come under scrutiny from Europe's anti-fraud office OLAF. He was deputy chief of the agency responsible for distributing EU funds between 2010-2012. That did not stop him from becoming an advisor on eight EU-funded projects, a clear conflict of interest. Hungary may have to refund some HUF3.3bn worth of funds as a result.