Luxury hotels, Hungarian soccer: car park boss Robert Belteky accused of $10m fraud

Care Park has told a court its former boss, Robert Belteky, defrauded it for a decade and spent much of the spoils on bankrolling two football sides in Hungary.

Robert Belteky (middle row, centre) with the football team Budafoki MTE.

Car parking boss Robert Belteky allegedly defrauded Care Park of more than $10m and spent much of the money on luxury hotels, apartment rentals in London and Melbourne, personal credit card bills and two second-rate Hungarian soccer clubs, a court has heard.

In documents lodged with the Federal Court, Care Park accuses Mr Belteky, who has previously been associated with A League team Melbourne Victory, of a decade of deceit.

The company, which operates car parks around Australia, in the UK and in Hungary, claims Mr Belteky diverted more than $2.7m to Budafoki FC, which was relegated from Hungary’s top league last year, and Ujbuda FC, which plays in the country’s third tier league.

He also allegedly paid player wages out of an additional $918,000 the company sent to his personal bank account in Hungary.

Care Park also claims Mr Belteky had Care Park sign sham employment contracts with his wife, Marie Belteky, and daughter, publicist Samantha Belteky, under which they were paid a total of more than $1m.

Clockwise from left: Robert Belteky, and apartments in London and Melbourne allegedly rented using Care Park’s money.

In a 100-page statement of claim filed with the court, Care Park, which is majority-owned by Hong Kong property developer Far East Consortium, repeatedly accuses Mr Belteky of using his position of control to act contrary to the interests of the company and enrich himself as part of a “dishonest and fraudulent design” against it.

The company has asked the court to order Robert, Marie and Samantha Belteky to pay damages and compensation and return the money.

The Belteky family have yet to file a defence to Care Park’s allegations, but Samantha Belteky told News Corp they would fight the claims.

“We have a lot of evidence to refute those very repetitive allegations and we’re working with our lawyers Holding Redlich to work through them,” she told News Corp.

No criminal charges have been laid over the Care Park allegations.

The Care Park logo apeeared on the jerseys of football team Budafoki MTEd in Budapest, Hungary.

Mr Belteky, who also owns a stake in Care Park, allegedly started defrauding it in 2012 – just three years after he was appointed managing director.

Care Park told the court it fired him from his $300,000 a year job on November 25 last year for “serious and wilful misconduct”.

In other allegations before the court, Care Park claims that most of the $918,000 it transferred from Care Park to Mr Belteky’s personal Hungarian bank account was then sent on to Budafoki FC and Ujbuda FC, which used the money “to pay their football club operation expenses, including the payment of player wages”.

Care Park told the court its business had nothing to do with football and pointed out that Mr Belteky has been publicly identified in Hungarian media as Budafoki’s owner.

Robert Belteky with his wife Marie. Picture: Supplied

The company alleges that between July 2016 and July 2018 it paid $856,270 in personal credit card bills run up by Mr Belteky on purchases including airfares for him, his wife and son Marc Belteky, “jewellery, watches and clothes”, “luxury hotels in various countries”, cruises, food, entertainment and theatre tickets.

The company also claims it paid the rent on two luxury homes used by Mr and Mrs Belteky, spending $169,200 to lease an apartment in London for three and a half years and another $59,000 for a three-bedroom apartment in prestigious Melbourne tower 35 Spring St, which boasts sweeping views over Treasury Gardens, which it leased for five months.

It told the court employment contracts with Marie and Samantha Belteky signed in April and May last year were shams because both women worked elsewhere during the years they were said to have worked for Care Park – Marie Belteky at Qantas and Samantha Belteky as a media officer at the National Gallery of Victoria and in other PR roles.

Samantha Belteky. Picture: Supplied

Robert Belteky. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Mr and Mrs Belteky’s company, Warmlink, allegedly received more than $1.9m, including $1.2m in cash, from Care Park between 2012 and 2022 while he personally is accused of receiving $530,000 in cash advances between 2012 and 2019.

In 2020 and 2021 Mr Belteky signed company cheques totalling almost $458,000 that were either made out to himself, used to pay off credit cards or paid non-business expenses, Care Park told the court.

The company also claims to have paid about $35,400 for Mr Belteky’s private expenses in Hungary between 2018 and 2022, including phone bills and “the equivalent of owner’s corporation fees for Robert Belteky’s apartment in Hungary”.

Mr Belteky is also accused of falsely claiming a bonus for reaching an earnings target that Care Park did not actually hit and making a false claim for back pay, leading the company to pay him a total of $892,000 last year in wages to which he was not entitled.

He also allegedly had the company pay $319,500 in bogus consultancy fees for arranging for it to buy carparking sites in Hungary in 2017.

This money was allegedly paid to a Hungarian company called Investment Hungary, which is controlled by Mr Belteky and a former Budafoki player.

Care Park told the court that Investment Hungary is ultimately owned by the Belteky family’s TB Trust in Channel Islands tax haven Jersey, via companies in Jersey and Malta.