Due to the commission of a bankruptcy crime, the Debrecen Court of Appeal fined B.S., the second defendant in the Szeviép case, 2.5 million forints, while P.L. acquitted the third-degree defendant of the charge of committing the crime of bankruptcy, thus the court significantly reduced the prison sentences previously imposed in the first instance.
The decision was announced at a public meeting on Monday by Ágnes Felegyné Szabó, the president of the criminal council at the court.
The history of the case is that the Szeged District Court found the former managers of Szeviép Zrt., which is in liquidation and deals with the construction of road and high-rise construction and water construction facilities, guilty of the crime of bankruptcy in the first instance, and therefore sentenced them to six and five years and two months in prison.
According to the indictment, the business company with a turnover of billions was in a situation threatening insolvency by the beginning of 2009 at the latest, then it became insolvent and bankruptcy proceedings were initiated against it. No bankruptcy agreement was reached between the creditors, so the court ordered the liquidation of the company in bankruptcy proceedings in August 2010, during which creditors’ claims amounting to HUF 6.5 billion were registered.
The prosecution saw that the significant loss of property was caused by the fact that the defendants, as members of the board, with their unanimous decisions from 2007, regularly and in large amounts granted loans – contrary to the requirements of reasonable management – to all or part of the zrt. owned companies, private individuals – including one of the defendants – and sports organizations.
However, the Szeged Court of Justice acquitted the defendants in the second instance – due to lack of evidence. The prosecution appealed against the decision for the finding of guilt and the acquittal of the defendants and their lawyers in the absence of a crime. After the disqualification of the judges of the Szeged Court of Appeals, the case was transferred to the Pécs District Court.
The Pécs Court of Appeal, acting at the third instance, annulled the part of the judgment of the Szeged Tribunal concerning the second-and third-order accused, and ordered the second-instance court to conduct a new procedure. The proceedings against the first accused, who died in the meantime, were terminated.
The prosecutor’s office, as well as the third-rate defendant and his lawyer, filed an appeal against the annulment, but the Court did not find them to be well-founded. In its reasoning, the Court agreed with the court that the first-instance verdict was unfounded, and this can only be eliminated by taking evidence – by adding an expert opinion, or by hearing the expert again – but this is not possible in the third-instance proceedings. The Court appointed the Court of Debrecen for the repeated second-instance proceedings of the Szeviép case.
The judgment became final in the case of the second-rate accused, the prosecution appealed against the acquittal of the third-rate accused in order to establish a crime. The proceedings in the case of the third accused continue at the Debrecen Court.
MTI
