The former socialist prime minister is in effect a trusted man of the Americans while Hungary's left-wing receives all financing from abroad. In a new audio recording, a businessman entangled in the Budapest City Hall scandal can be heard speaking about these issues.

The scandal know as City Hall-gate in Hungary erupted in early November when documents and audio recordings indicating that Budapest’s left-wing municipal leadership would sell the prestigious City Hall building came to light. Later, Anonymus, a masked figure, published additional recordings, informing the general public about various property sales that raise the suspicion of graft, a “commission scheme” operating around the municipality and a left-wing corruption network.

In the latest video, Gyula Gansperger, whom former Socialist premier Gordon Bajnai described as an “old battlefield buddy of his”, can be heard speaking. The leftist businessman reveals that Mr Bajnai is essentially a trusted man of the Americans and that the left led by Ferenc Gyurcsany receives all its financing from abroad, the Hungarian Origo news portal points out.

Describing his connections with leftists, the businessman also speaks about the influence millionaire stock market speculator George Soros has on opposition media outlets, in particular on Hungarian news portal 444.hu, as well as about the financial assistance provided by Tibor Veres, owner of the Wallis company. He also discloses interesting details regarding, who is actually financing left-wing experts and political scientists.

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karacsony argues that Gyula Gansperger is a businessman with ties to Hungary’s governing party, Fidesz. The mayor attempted to prove his point in a lengthy Facebook post last week, drawing the conclusion that the left has nothing to do with the City Hall-gate and that businessmen linked to Fidesz wanted to purchase the expansive building. This morning, Anonymus sent another recording to our editorial office. Once again, Gyula Gansperger can be heard speaking in the audio recording as was the case in several other excerpts presented earlier.

The recording fundamentally challenges Gergely Karacsony’s allegation.

Mr Gansperger was once again talking to the representative of the Russian investor [Rahimkulov]. This time, however, the conversation did not focus on how to acquire the City Hall building or other real estate owned by the municipality with the help of bribery referred to as commission. At the beginning of the recording, Mr Gansperger presents his „credentials”, by describing his political connections through a number of stories from the past. It is worth quoting from the excerpt verbatim.

„I was the CEO of Wallis, you know, under the Socialist government and we asked the Socialists – they were in power at the time – to do something for us, because we wouldn’t have been able to do it otherwise. And they said it was 30 million forints. So I told them to go and see Tibor [Tibor Veres, owner of Wallis] because he is the owner. What the f..k do I have to do with this? And they told me, no, no, you’ll be sitting there too (Mr Gansperger is tapping on the table), because we don’t trust Tibor. If you promise us, we will get it, because for very long time I have been on good terms with the person who was representing them,” Gyula Gansperger said, recalling a story, albeit in a some what confused fashion, that must have taken place between 2006 and 2010, when he was CEO of Wallis (from 2006). His predecessor at Wallis, Gordon Bajnai, was already working in Ferenc Gyurcsany’s government since mid-2006.

The recording clearly demonstrates that, contrary to what Karacsony has claimed, Gansperger had excellent relations with left-wing figures, so much so that he was entrusted with the potentially corrupt deal, rather than Tibor Veres, the new owner of Wallis. In the recording Gansperger goes on to make statements from which it can be inferred that he still has strong ties with the left.

„In Hungary, – I think – there are basically foreign forces and financiers behind the movement of the whole opposition. (…) Who are these forces?” Gansperger asks the question, and then answers it:

“One of these is, let’s put it this way, the Soros Empire. The other part is composed of big-capital groups, that is, from Germany and especially the United States, who want to have influence here. I think Gordon [former leftist prime minister Gordon Bajnai] is their man.”

„Not in the negative sense of the word. No. He is the minister or former minister who keeps in touch with these people. Obviously not (…) with agent 007, but they’re all presidents and other figures, so there is a system for that. … Everything that this camp receives, no matter what Gyurcsany and the rest say, comes from abroad. So, (otherwise) it wouldn’t have come together like semolina pudding.”

Taking about the Friedrich Ebert Foundation of the German Social Democrats Gansperger explained that various foreign umbrella organisations with massive budgets were setting up in Hungary, organising conferences, producing publications and funding many of the Hungarian left-wing media personalities and political analysts and scientist posing as experts.

The businessman said: “There are umbrella organizations that enter into the country this way … and they fund political scientists like Laszlo Keri and the like. Because someone has to pay them and the younger ones, too. They do not live off what they earn at the university as teachers, but these organisations have authors and publications and conferences, and I don’t know what else. They spend a lot of money on this lot.”

The representative of the investors must have been sceptical, so Gansperger continued by talking about the left-wing media.

Based on Gansperger’s statements, he has information that not only left-wing parties but also left-wing experts and left-wing media are living off foreign financial support. The situation of the 444.hu portal is particularly dubious, as to the best of Gansperger’s knowledge, it is under the direct influence of George Soros.

The recording is the latest in the series of leaks about business meetings on the sale of various properties in the capital, especially the extremely valuable City Hall building. In addition to the representatives of Russian investors, Gyula Gansperger was a regular participant in these discussions. As is known from the recordings, former Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai also took part in one of the meetings, referring to Gansperger as his „old battlefield buddy„. Balazs Barts, CEO of the capital’s asset management firm, was present at another meeting. According to a number of excerpts, there is a „commission scheme” or form of corruption in operation reaching up to the highest levels of the Budapest municipal leadership.

A number of complaints have been made in connection with the case. Police ordered an investigation into allegations of malpractice, fraud, corruption, bribery and accepting bribes.