Hungary's MOL has refuted claims from an article in the Croatian daily "Jutarnji List" about video footage of a secret dinner involving former Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader and MOL board chairman Zsolt Hernadi.
The leading Hungarian oil and gas company said in a statement that it categorically dismissed allegations and accusations from the article, describing the interpretations and speculations about the would-be video footage "as realistic as stories from the Croatian cartoon 'Professor Balthazar'," according to the statement signed by the MOL marketing department's director, Domokos Szollar.
The Jutarnji List on Monday claimed that it had discovered a secret video showing Sanader and Hernadi making an agreement at their dinner in a Zagreb restaurant about MOL taking on a dominant role in Croatia's INA company for which Sanader would receive kickbacks. The article reads that "a discreetly positioned video camera on the wall recorded every detail".
The MOL statement dismissed claims about any agreement or payment of kickbacks to the former PM Sanader. It also ruled out the possibility that any politician or decision maker had received graft during or after the conclusion of an INA share-holding agreement between the Croatian government and MOL.
The Croatian anti-corruption investigating agency USKOK has issued an indictment against Sanader, charging him with receiving 10 million euros from Hernadi as kickbacks in return for granting the Hungarian oil company the management rights and for a proposal on the divestiture of the gas division from INA.
