A mayor resigns in the town hall over a fraud scandal of 2.7 million euros

Ján Hrčka, the mayor of Petržalka, the largest district of Bratislava, announced on Friday after the discovery of a breathtaking fraud of 2.7 million euros, which was carried out in his own municipal office.

An employee of the wage and salary department has divided public funds on personal bank accounts for at least two years, which were not discovered by the internal controls of the district. The embezzlement – one of the largest memory of the Slovak local government – was only uncovered in May after a number of unusual transactions were raised with red flags with a local bench.

HRčka, who has been a mayor since 2018, said he would resign until the end of May. Vice Mayor Iveta Jančoková (SAS) will take over his duties from June 1st to a special election, although the date remains undecided.

“This is a massive failure of internal supervision,” said Hrčka during a press conference. “I was deeply ashamed and although I can't undo what happened, I take full responsibility.”

How the fraud was uncovered

On May 7th, a high-ranking city officer HRčka informed about an assumed wage and salary billing. The district had accidentally continued to pay salaries to former employees, the official proposed. But the amount – initially € 200,000 – soon rose. It turned out that the bank account details had been changed and that the funds were not forwarded to previous employees, but to the personal accounts of a current employee.

A bank – ČSOB – marked the transactions as suspicious and led to a deeper examination. The perpetrator, a salary accountant, was finally confronted and confronted after the evidence had been shown. “He told us that he owed powerful people to money and claimed someone in his situation had done the same thing,” said Hrčka.

The man started the program in January 2023, starting with small quantities and gradually increasing the transmissions. By April 2025, he sent hundreds of thousands of euros a month, including a final payment of € 220,000, shortly before the fraud was uncovered. The authorities believe that he had used over 150 bank accounts in eight different banks.

Since then, the police have arrested the former employee. Most of the money is not rejected. “He claims that the money is gone,” said Hrčka.

The mayor also revealed that another bank had already reported suspicious activities in January and had closed dozens of accounts of the employee in question. However, the bank could not draw the bank's attention to the potential fraud. HRčka fascinating the inactivity of the state authorities and found that agencies that were responsible for the investigation of money laundering had apparently not taken steps for months.

“We uncovered the fraud ourselves,” said Hrčka.

A mayor who is known for economy of a wage and salary accounting spot

HRčka, a self -proclaimed watchdog of public expenses, said that he personally checked each invoice for over € 100 during his tenure. Ironically, he admitted that the salary account expenditure had escaped his exam – an accident that ultimately proved to be expensive.

During his term in office, in contrast to Bratislava, Petržalka improved his financial health and, according to Watchdog Into, halved from over 21 percent in 2017 to 9.5 percent in 2022. HRčka was committed to investing in local infrastructure such as swimming pools and sidewalk repairs and at the same time criticized the capital projects that the Mayor of Bratislava, Matúš Vallo 5 -millions -Euro renovation of the freedom place, which he cannot “do with a luxury vacation,” criticized.

Despite the political friction, Vallo regretted regret about the scandal and praised HRčka's decision as “unexpected but appropriate”.

It is not yet clear whether HRčka will run again in the planned local elections of the next year. He said he would support his successor during the transition, but offered no comments on his future political ambitions.

For the time being, HRčka will remain in office as a member of the Bratislava City Council.