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 - Ties running deep
ATTACK ON THE OMFB intelligence until the signature of the Austrian State Treaty in 1955: using the code-names of ‘Karl’ and ‘Heine’, he collected military, political and economic data for the allies. Just like so many of the figures in this book, Heinrich Korzil reportedly served as an SS officer during the war,490 before being captured as an America POW. In various camps, he made a wide range of acquaintances, thanks to whom he had very good links to various US companies, especially those exporting coal.491 In view of this, Hungarian counterintelligence had every reason to find the Soviets’ trust in Berma-Wien inexplicable, but this was not the only episode Hungarian counterintelligence was baffled by. According to official data, Berma-Wien had a turnover in 1986 of 158 million Austrian schillings, and it assumed from Technoimpex the exclusive right to sell machine tools in Austria in 1987.492 Yet the impressive figures are misleading: according to a state security report from 1985, Berma had been making losses for years and the owners endeavoured to keep it afloat by “Technoimpex using it for its Hungarian imports to avoid further losses, for which it pays Berma a commission of 10 percent, making procurement more expensive for the People’s Republic of Hungary.”493 So the turnover figures comprise the business outsourced from Technoimpex, which generated significant losses for the country due to the commissions associated with its dealings. 490 ÁBTL 2.7.3. Szakelosztó 6-7/170/88, 7 April 1988 491 ÁBTL 3.1.2 M-23641. 19. Report, 19 September 1957 492 Vajna 1987, p. 98. 493 ÁBTL 2.7.1 NOIJ 1985-III/II-153, 14 August 1985 The name Berma popping up in the network around Sebestyén seems to be directly linked to the foreign trade lobby’s biggest business deal, the misuse of Iranian oil, which brings us to the financial-economic interest group of the 1980s, and the manipulators of the years running up to the change in political system. During his placement in Frankfurt, János Sebestyén entered the system of nexuses that was masterfully built by his predecessors, particularly Károly Junger, who revived and developed it further. Through the OMFB, he turned corruption into a business and raised it to the state level using the privileged companies. 177
