Tamas Gyarfas, the former president of the Hungarian Swimming Federation, has denied the allegations made against him that he ordered the murder of a media rival in 1998. Hungarian court has placed him on a 1-month home detention with an ankle monitor, a decision that he has appealed.
Gyarfas maintains his innocence in the murder of Janos Fenyo, and referred to the charges as “absurd.” Hungary’s National Bureau of Investigation (NNI) is investigating him for paying mobster Tamas Portik to kill Feyo, who at the time was Gyarfas’ primary media rival. He was the head of a company that built both an empire in distribution and renting of domestic video cassetts and a number of print magazines and newspapers. In 1998, a Mitsubishi Galant pulled up next to Fenyo’s Mercedes and unloadedd 20-25 bullets into the vehicle, killing Fenyo instantly.
Slovak Jozef Rohac was sentenced to life in prison for the execution of the murder in 2017. Portik was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 2016 in an unrelated case.
Gyarfas was the head of Hungary’s swimming federation from 1993 until 2016, when he resigned after criticism from some of the nation’s top swimmers. In 2017, though, he was appointed by FINA President Julio Maglione to serve on the 8-person FINA Executive, a committee made up of the international swimming federation’s president, five vice presidents, honorary treasurer and one member to be nominated by the president. He also serves as treasurer for LEN, the European governing body for aqutics.
He said he didn’t do it, so it’s all cool.