Hungary police detain head of gas wholesaler EMFESZ

BUDAPEST, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Hungarian police detained Istvan Goczi, the managing director of gas wholesaler EMFESZ, on suspicion of fraud, the National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) said in a statement.

"Today, following a property search...(the NNI) began procedures against the head of EMFESZ (Istvan Goczi) on suspicion of fraud of extraordinary value and proceeded to detain the individual," a statement published on the national police website late on Wednesday said.

The NNI said the detention related to the sale of part of EMFESZ but declined to disclose anything further.

An EMFESZ spokesperson was not available for comment.

EMFESZ, which controls about a fifth of the Hungarian gas market and imports around 3 billion cubic metres of gas a year, was sold to Swiss-based RosGas AG in April, but in early May the original owner Mabofi Holdings said it had not approved the deal and would seek legal remedy. [ID:nL7444981]

A police investigation into the sale was launched on May 25. [ID:nLM323816].

A police spokesman said at the time: "The National Bureau of Investigation started an investigation against an unknown perpetrator on suspicion of malpractice causing exceptionally large financial damage."

Mabofi Holdings is a Cyprus-registered company, part of Group DF, a holding company of Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash. RosGas AG is an offshore company that EMFESZ said was in the network of interest of Russian energy giant Gazprom.

(Reporting by Marton Dunai, editing by Elaine Hardcastle)