Viktor Orbán’s Cabinet Minister on the US Treasury Department’s Sanctions List

Controversial US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman

 

The United States has placed the Minister of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office, Antal Rogán, on the official sanctions list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury, as announced by the US Ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, at a press conference on Tuesday.

The ambassador justified the decision by saying that the Hungarian Minister had allegedly abused his official position to influence the business sector. “Antal Rogán is a primary architect, implementer, and beneficiary of this system of corruption,” he said, adding that the politician has “abused his office for his personal enrichment,” but also for the benefit of others loyal to his political party. In response to a question, David Pressman said that this was the reason why he, and not the Hungarian Prime Minister, was placed on the sanctions list.

According to the US Ambassador, this process of corruption is nothing more than a weakening of Hungarian institutions and democracy, as funds are flowing “from the public purse into private pockets.” However, he evaded a further question as to whether more Hungarians should be placed on the sanctions list.

Pressman said that the United States had not made the decision lightly, as it did not sanction sitting ministers or heads of state of allied countries, but like the European Union, they believed that corruption in Hungary was damaging to the interests and security of the US and its allies. The ambassador spoke of a sovereign decision to protect the US financial system from corruption. He added that the aim was not to diminish Hungary’s sovereignty, but to counter the process of corruption that had been identified.

This is the personal revenge of the ambassador sent by the failed US administration to Hungary, but one who left without success and in disgrace, against Antán Rogán,”

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote in a Facebook post.

He added: “What a good thing that, in a few days’ time, the United States will be led by people who see our country as a friend and not an enemy.”

Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás told MTI on Tuesday that this is further proof that the outgoing US administration and the Ambassador want revenge for the fact that Hungary and the Hungarian government supported Donald Trump during the election campaign, and that the US President, who takes office on January 20, has cited Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government as a positive example more than any other foreign politician.

But David Pressman and the Democrats’ government belong to the past in terms of Hungarian-American relations,”

emphasized the minister.

Therefore, this “petty and unfounded revenge, valid for a few weeks at most,” will only remind us that there was an ambassador of the United States, who in violation of his official duties and in disregard of the Vienna Convention, did not endeavor to maintain good relations with the host country, but did everything to overthrow the government, Gulyás said.

In a statement sent to MTI on Tuesday, legal expert Zoltán Lomnici Jr. wrote that the unauthorized disclosure of the data that has now come to light in connection with the US decision related to the cabinet minister violates Hungarian and international constitutional principles and in most cases is also punishable by law. He added that this also violates the basic requirements of objective evidence, according to which the competent bodies (the courts) must decide impartially and solely on the basis of the evidence if there is a possibility of criminal sanctions.

According to the constitutional lawyer,

the competent body of the US Department of the Treasury passed on the data subject’s personal data without a legal basis,

violating the principles of the General Data Protection Regulation and Article 6(1).

Political analyst Bryan E. Leib stated that Pressman had disgraced US diplomacy, noting that the sanctioning President Biden’s Treasury Department imposed is “absurd and 100% politically motivated.” The US political analyst believes that the decision also undermines the credibility of US diplomacy and is not only directed against the Hungarian government.

Via MTI, Featured image: MTI/Szigetvári Zsolt