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10th February, 2026
Foundation ordered to replace massive losses
The Neumann János University Foundation (NJEA) in Kecskemét has lost a lawsuit and must now produce a plan detailing how it would recover the lost assets, as demanded by the State Audit Office following its mishandling of nearly Ft 130 billion in public funds.
The foundation lent Ft 127.5 billion in 2021 to investment company Optima, which managed hundreds of millions of forints of public money granted to foundations created by the MNB, and ultimately squandered much of the money.
Optima, linked to former central bank governor György Matolcsy’s circle, invested the funds mainly in listed companies and real estate abroad with limited success, resulting in hundreds of billions of forints lost.
The NJEA also spent all the state funds it originally received.
The Audit Office investigation found that the foundation’s management had acted irresponsibly and ordered it to prepare a plan for recovering the lost assets.
After the NJEA refused to release the plan, the editor-in-chief of the local news website KecsUP filed a lawsuit with the support of Transparency International.
On Friday, a first-instance court ruled in favour of KecsUP, ordering the foundation to release the document within 15 days.
The judge cited the public interest, the foundation’s status as a public body, and the fact that its assets are part of the national wealth as justification for the decision.
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Sources regularly consulted, with abbreviations used in text: Népszabadság (N); Magyar Hírlap (MH); Világgazdaság (VG); Napi Gazdaság (NG); Magyar Nemzet (MN); Népszava (Nsz); Kossuth Rádió news (KR); nightly TV news (TV).
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