Hungary tax whistleblower: 'People who expose corruption have to be afraid'

  • 10 years ago
A crowd of some 1,500 people took to the streets of the Hungarian capital Budapest on Saturday, December 28 to protest against corruption, particularly tax fraud by large companies.

One protester told euronews: “It (the tax fraud) should be investigated and those who are responsible found!”

The demonstration was held in the wake of allegations from a whistleblower András Horváth, a former analyst at Hungary’s tax office, NAV. Horváth claims that NAV has been turning a blind eye to up to 3.3 billion euros of tax fraud per year.

NAV denies Horváth’s allegations and plans to prosecute him for slander. His home has been searched and documents have been seized from there.

Horváth told euronews, “It appears now that the people who expose corruption have to be afraid and not those who are corrupt or commit tax fraud.”

Euronews correspondent Andrea Hajagos reported from Budapest: “The amount of money in tax fraud is over one billion euros per year in Hungary, according to official data. And Hungary is not unique in this respect – so András Horváth as asked the European Commission to help with this problem.”

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