Story By: Lee Bullen,Sub Editor: Joseph Golder,Agency: Central European News

A Hungarian man based in the UK is being prosecuted for running a pyramid scheme to rip off his countrymen.

According to the chief prosecutor’s office in the northern Hungarian capital Budapest, the 50-year-old defendant, the CEO of a business registered in the UK, set up and ran a Hungarian company that resembled a pyramid scheme by collecting and distributing members’ payments.

Chief prosecutor Tibor Ibolya said the man held online conferences and held presentations in his home country to recruit people to his scheme.

According to reports, the suspect promised members they would enjoy lucrative benefits through the leasing and buying of property and the repayment of existing mortgages if they recruited more people to the company.

Local media said that over 1,500 people transferred sums to the man’s bank account.

Transactions reportedly ranged between 15,000 HUF (37 GBP) and several million HUF (up to 10,000 GBP) and the suspect was in charge of the money and where it ended up.

Members at the bottom of the alleged pyramid scheme would only see benefits on the condition that they recruited further members, and financial gains did not materialise in a large number of cases, according to local media.

It is currently unclear when the trial begins.

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