The Central Chief Prosecution Office of Investigation is conducting a criminal investigation against 4 suspects on suspicion of abuse of function under the section 299.§ (1) and (2) a, point. of the Act C of 2012 on Criminal Code.
The perpetrators contacted the persons involved in the criminal proceedings in the context of the given proceedings, falsely claiming that they could influence the Minister of the Interior and the Secretary of State in order to make decisions favorable to them in the proceedings against them. The suspects had deceived the victims and received a total of 92.960.000 HUF.
The investigation had established that a Hungarian company owned by a British Ltd. had employed the suspect, furthermore during the search of the suspect Spanish related documents were seized by the investigative authority.
The prosecution had requested the NBI ARO conducting an asset retrieval procedure in order to verify the possible assets of the main suspect in Spain and in Great Britain. The NBI ARO International Relations Division had sent a request to the Spanish and the British ARO in order to make international asset tracing of the offender. The Spanish ARO had verified 2 real estates of the suspect’s life partner in Spain therefore NBI ARO had forwarded a proposal of freezing order to the competent Office of the Prosecutor General according to the regulation (EU) 2018/1805 in 2022.
The freezing order will be sent by the Central Chief Prosecution Office of via judicial channel to the Spanish prosecution in order to order the sequestration of the real estates of the Hungarian suspect’s wife.
NBI ARO had got the competence and capacity (powers) to freeze and to issue urgent freezing orders in cross border cases but these kinds of measures are the seizures and sequestrations, therefore our authority had to forward the prompt request to the competent Prosecution’s Office. The Prosecution will decide about the designation of the police authority in order to fulfil the request. The request targeting the freezing order (seizure or sequestrations) must be issued in accordance with criteria set out in the regulation (EU) 2018/1805 of The European Parliament and of the Council.
The underlying offence in Hungary was the abuse of function under the section 299.§ (1) and (2) a, point. of the Act C of 2012 on Criminal Code.
There is a domestic investigation/prosecution related to this case in the country of origin (Hungary). However, there is no investigation/prosecution in the country of asset location (Spain).
The legal basis for international cooperation was the Council Decision 2007/845/JHA (6th December 2007) concerning the Cooperation between Asset Recovery Offices of the Member States in the field of tracing and identification of proceeds from, or other property related to crime as well as Regulation (EU) 2018/1805 on the mutual recognition of freezing orders and confiscation orders.