George Soros’s Face on Fake Money Earns Fine in Hungary
George Soros’s Face on Fake Money Earns Fine in Hungary
(Bloomberg) -- The face of George Soros, the financier demonized by Prime Minister Viktor Orban‘s government, has been ubiquitous on billboards across Hungary. His image is now creating another kind of controversy.
The Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party, a satirical movement that won real municipal councilor seats in elections last month, printed play money with the portraits of Orban’s foes, including Soros and Jean-Claude Juncker, the former president of the European Commission.
That has earned Gergely Kovacs, the party’s president, a 100,000 forint ($332) fine from the tax authority for “the contravention of the regulations governing imitation money,” according to a copy of the ruling forwarded to Bloomberg Thursday. Kovacs plans to pay the fine, he said by phone.
The tax office also confiscated two of the fake 10,000 forint notes, according to the ruling. The authority said it can’t comment, citing tax secrecy rules.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at agergely@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Scott Rose at rrose10@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andrea Dudik
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