case
Summary
The independent anti-corruption audit uncovered hidden political decision-making networks, systematic opacity, and institutional abuse.
Disappearance of the TI Hungary’s Second Report represented the loss of a comprehensive anti-corruption reform program for Hungary.
The TIMTE investigation, which aimed to reform the entire Hungarian legal system to combat corruption, concluded in 1999. What began as a proposed investigation became a battle against an independent NGO and its complete elimination.
01
What was uncovered
Dr. Pinter exposed Transparency International’s hypocritical practices and the suppression of a report that did not sit well with the head of EY.
02
What wrongdoing occured
TI Hungary, led by Adam Tertak, rejected the report without allowing anyone to read it. The grant funds used were recorded as a loss for the NGO.
03
What consequences followed
The major Western embassies were informed via email about the report’s lack of professionalism, and TI continued to discredit Dr. Pinter’ reputation within international organizations (the UN, the International Anti-Corruption Academy) too.
04
What sources it is based on
Dr. Pinter’s study about TI Hungary Association, and an attached embassy correspondence.
Whistleblowing timeline
THE TI’S LOST SECOND REPORT
Who stood to gain from the persistence of corruption in Hungary?
While the sell-off of Hungarian national assets to foreign buyers at below-market prices was underway, the Transparency International Hungary Association (TIMTE) finished its second report, titled “An audit of the entire Hungarian legal system from the aspect of anti-corruption.” The editor, dr. István Pinter cooperation with chairman Peter Vadasz, sent copies of the draft to the State Audit Office, the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the National Judicial Council.
According to the attached minutes, the new chairman Adam Tertak, heading up Ernst & Young LLC, said, “His opinion is also very negative, which is why he recommends that the general assembly vote that the Association disown the study. The result of the vote is 10 in favour and one abstaining.” (TIMTE general assembly minutes, 26 August 1999, page 3) Using this method, Adam Tertak managed to get those present to vote on the material without even reading it. This Second Report has never seen the light of day, and even the State Audit Office’s request failed to yield results.
Adam Tertak, as the Chair of the Hungarian association of Transparency International, is responsible for the disappearance of a governing anti-corruption report. Transparency International’s Second Report is the concluding document of a study that includes an audit of the entire Hungarian legal system. As with the first, this report also contained a package of recommendations to prevent, combat, and eliminate corruption in Hungary, which was essentially similar to Peter Hack’s 2012 integrity report. As the TIMTE’s second report was never released and, years later, during Noemi Alexa’s tenure, Peter Hack’s report never received the attention it was promised, the Transparency International actually significantly increased the risk of corruption in Hungary, rather than decreasing it.
timeline
- NOVEMBER 2016
Dr. Pinter has been hired as corporate security manager at DHK Financial Services Inc.
- FEBRUARY 2017
First risk alert to the CEO.
- MARCH 2017
Reports to the CEO regarding the lack of a filing system and the illegality of internal regulations.
- MAY 2017
Start of mobbing from the CEO.
- AUGUST 2017
Third risk alert to the CEO.
- OCTOBER 2017
Certified expert in anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism
- DECEMBER 2017
Start of compliance tasks.
- JANUARY 2018
Escalating bullying by the CEO.
- FEBRUARY 2018
Fourth risk alert to the CEO.
- FEBRUARY 2018
The whistleblower’s unfounded verbal warning.
- MARCH 2018
The whistleblower’s unfounded written warning.
- MAY 2018
Report on Risks to the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
- JUNE 2018
Statement regarding flaws in the draft AML regulations.
- NOVEMBER 2018
Receipt of the Budapest Institute of Banking Compliance Expert Certificate.
- NOVEMBER 2018
Termination by the employer on November 22.
- DECEMBER 2018
Complaint filed to the court regarding the unlawful termination of the employment. After a year and a half of unemployment, Dr. Pinter landed the best job of his life.
THE WHISTLEBLOWER
Dr. Pinter one of the founders and pro bono attorney of the Transparency International Hungary Association (TIMTE). He has been a member of the executive committee from the very beginning, and was soon elected vice president, overseeing professional affairs. He was the initiator and leader of a comprehensive anti-corruption review of the entire Hungarian legal system, as well as the head of the task force investigating the corruption scandal in Budapest Municipality. The former investigating prosecutor published his book in 2025, exposes in detail the abuses committed by Transparency International Hungary. These abuses are not mentioned on TI’s Berlin website, and TI Hungary is even erasing all traces of the NGO that was the first to try to stand up to rampant corruption.
Over the past two decades, there has not been a single media appearance on the topic of corruption, and the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Vienna has not even accepted him as an associate member, even though he meets all the criteria. At UN events where TI is scheduled to present on political corruption, its application is first accepted and then its participation is denied. Hungarian anti-corruption civil society organizations regularly refuse to allow his to attend their events. His application for a U4 management position was also unsuccessful. Without exception, the dr. Pinter’s anti-corruption grant applications are rejected, whether they are submitted in response to Hungarian or European Union calls for proposals.
He is currently a pro bono member of the Anti-Corruption and Anti-Fraud Working Group at the Hungarian Corporate Compliance Association and pro bono co-chair of the GTA Integrity Institute.
WHO LOST WHAT AND WHO WON WHAT
In addition to the experts participating in the audit, the Head of the EY Hungary as the new leader of TIMTE Adam Tertak also notified TI’s Berlin headquarters, the Soros Foundation, the OSI, the State Audit Office, and the members of the TIMTE of his negative findings, with his campaign of discrediting extending to a substantially wider sphere. For example, even accredited embassies were informed of the audits’ failings. By having the general assembly qualify the first final report as “unfinished,” he laid the legal basis for the return of the payments to the Soros Foundation and the OSI. All this occurred despite both institutions having previously stated they would accept the performance. Meanwhile, Tertak remained a member of the board of George Soros’s CEU foundation too, dr. Pinter’s reputation was discredited for decades.
Dealing with the Hungarian TI’s issue Miklos Marschall became for Director for Europe and Central Asia of Transparency International. Adam Tertak was appointed to the head of the Central European Ernst and Young and a couple of years later, he became the Dean of the Business Faculty at the Central European University, illustrating the powers and methods that dominated corruption in the Hungarian capital. Dr. Pinter’s law firm has lost its major clients one after another.
The biggest winners, however, were the leaders and staff of Transparency International Hungary (TIHUN), which was founded a year later and consisted mainly of faculty members from Central European University and a few leading journalists. Compared to a typical Hungarian civil society organization, they were provided with an astonishing amount of financial and other resources; many were able to launch their entire international careers here. Dr. Pinter established the GTA Integrity Institute at his own expense, which promotes itself as the intellectual heir to TIMTE.
Neither of them was able to prevent Hungary from becoming the most corrupt country in the European Union. The key difference is that while the GTA Integrity Institute lacked the necessary resources, TIHUN chose to take on the lucrative role of a political activist.