Borvendég Zsuzsanna: Fabulous Spy Games. How international trade networks with the West developed after 1945 - A Magyarságkutató Intézet Kiadványai 24. (Budapest, 2021)
ATTACK ON THE OMFB - Storm clouds
FABULOUS SPY GAMES independently by MNVK-2. He is said to have outmanoeuvred the company Hunicoop437 to obtain the exclusive representation rights for British Petroleum in Hungary for Eurocom.438 intelligence through its activities. The Ministry of Foreign Trade launched several investigations into its operations when the suspicion arose that they were dealing with a private company hidden behind a state facade. This was indeed true, but the service managed to prevent the screening reports from having any consequences. The founders of Eurocom may have known that the law governing the establishment of joint ventures would be adopted in the autumn of 1972, which is why they set the company up, with the help of which they feverishly commenced establishing companies in western countries from early 1973 onwards. Borvendég 2018, p. 58-74 437 Hunicoop coordinated cooperation in the machine industry. First and foremost, they were engaged in acquiring western licences and factory machinery. However, instead of regular trade transactions, they attempted to obtain the desired products as part of a cooperation deal. In other words, they paid the partner company by delivering Hungarian products. 438 ÁBTL 3.1.5. 0-15829/8, p. 183 Evaluation report, 25 April 1973 439 ÁBTL 3.1.5 0-15829/3, p. 176 Statement by Gyula Sinka, manager of the Transelektro company, 22 May 1970 440 ÁBTL 2.1 XI/ 5 (V-150342/a) p. 38 Report, 12 August 1950 441 ÁBTL 3.1.9 V-151001/1-10 Case of József Ákos and associates The OMFB acquisitions through Transelektro were not an extra burden for the company, since the employees of the Committee studied the selected goods from a technical point of view before they were purchased, and they were also the ones to determine the source of acquisition.439 Due to the volume of these acquisitions, and also to keep publicity at a bare minimum when foreign trade rules were circumvented, a separate group was set up within the company to deal exclusively with OMFB matters. Its leader was Mrs Károly Jelinek, whose reliability and conspiratorial experience had long been proven as she was an officer of Gábor Péter s State Protection Office in an investigatory capacity.440 In addition to the investigation against Endre Simon, Mrs Jelineks name came up in state security documents with regard to economic crimes. In the 1960s, investigations were conducted against some of Transelektro’s employees for unauthorised foreign trade activities, bribery, overpricing and mismanagement, yet they failed to establish Mrs Jelineks hand in these crimes then or later, even though the data gathered compromised her.441 Clearly, her family ties to the top party leadership made her well-connected, which is one of the reasons to 158
