Unity Council and was the president of its minorities committee. Elected senator in May 1990, he was re-elected in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. He held various positions and committee assignments within the Senate: member (1990–1992; 2008–2018), secretary (1992), and quaestor (2010–2018) of the permanent bureau; defence, public order and national security committee (1993–1996); culture, art and mass media committee (1992–1996); public health committee (1996–1997); committee for investigating abuses, combating corruption and petitions (2000–2001; 2004–2005); joint committee providing oversight to the activities of Serviciul Român de Informaţii (since 2000); joint committee of 1989 revolutionaries (2004); equal opportunity committee (2008–2009). From 1992 to 2008, he was leader of the UDMR's parliamentary delegation. Also, from 1997 to 2007, he headed the UDMR chapter based in Odorheiu Secuiesc. As of 2009, Verestóy was the third-wealthiest Romanian politician, with holdings of €100 million, down from €250 million a year earlier, with losses due to the recession. Nicknamed the "logging king", he had significant investments in the wood industry; it was there that he began to build up his wealth, and he was dubbed an "oligarch of the transition" by President Traian Băsescu. Other companies in which he held a substantial amount of shares are Transgaz and Rompetrol. As of 2007, he owned three apartments he built in Bucharest that year, an older apartment in the capital and one in Odorheiu Secuiesc, and a vacation house in Ilfov County. That year, prosecutors from the National Anticorruption Directorate investigated him for allegedly earning €10 million from transactions involving a regional investment fund that he had made as a result of information obtained due to his parliamentary office, but decided not to indict him. Verestóy ran a charitable foundation and was president of the Odorhei Handball Club. He and his wife had one son. Diagnosed with lung cancer in 2017, he died while undergoing treatment in Vienna, Austria the following year. Notes External links Official site Democratic Union of Hungarians in Romania politicians Members of the Senate of Romania Romanian chemical engineers Romanian businesspeople in timber People from Odorheiu Secuiesc Politehnica University of Bucharest alumni Deaths from lung cancer Deaths from cancer in Austria 1954 births 2018 deaths