Hungary seizes nearly $20m in Orban-era corruption probe

Hungary’s National Asset Recovery and Protection Office said Friday investigators seized nearly $20 million in hidden cash in a corruption probe into former National Development Minister Miklos Sesztak, Deutsche Welle reported Nov. 14.

The case gives Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s anti-corruption campaign a prominent asset recovery after his April parliamentary win ended Viktor Orban’s 16-year rule. The cash amounts to more than half the $37 million in bribes and kickbacks Sesztak is suspected of accepting.

Investigators searched sites in Budapest and three Hungarian counties over two days. The office said the haul included 5.07 billion forints, or $15.3 million, along with €2.66 million and $1.26 million.

Authorities found banknotes in forests, farm buildings, warehouses and homes, as well as in an expensive safe at an isolated site. Finance Minister Andras Karman said 12 Hungarian State Treasury employees spent eight hours counting the notes with five machines.

The agency said the seized funds were placed in an account held by the state treasury. It also released video showing investigators beside stacks of bundled cash and digging in what appeared to be woodland at night.

Magyar presented the seizure as evidence for his broader campaign against alleged corruption under his predecessor. On Facebook, he said the discovery “officially marks the end of the Fidesz-KDNP mafia,” referring to Orban’s former governing alliance.

Magyar’s center-right, pro-European Tisza party won what Deutsche Welle described as a landslide victory in April. He has pledged to improve Hungary’s relations with the European Union after years of disputes during Orban’s government.

His government created the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office with investigative and prosecutorial powers to pursue suspected corruption and misuse of public funds. Magyar has called the wider crackdown “Operation Purgatory.”

Sesztak served as national development minister from 2014 to 2018. He was taken into police custody in late September and has denied wrongdoing; his lawyer, Gabor Papp, did not respond to Deutsche Welle’s request for comment on the latest seizure.

Orban has condemned the investigations as political “tyranny” aimed at pushing him out of Hungarian politics. He has also described the detention of his younger brother this week, in a separate investigation into suspected human trafficking and influence peddling, as political revenge.

The campaign has reached other senior figures from Orban’s period in office, including former central bank governor and economy minister Gyorgy Matolcsy. He is under investigation over the alleged misuse of a central bank foundation that received 288 billion forints, or $818 million, in public assets; Matolcsy and other former officials under investigation have denied wrongdoing.

A Median survey published by HVG this week found 70% of respondents viewed the anti-corruption drive as “very important.” A separate Median poll showed support for Orban’s Fidesz party at 16% of voters in November, roughly half its level before the April election.