Nearly $20m found in Hungary’s forests, buildings amid corruption probe

Hungarian investigators have found $19.5m in hidden cash, including bundles dug out in forests, during a corruption probe involving a former minister under ex-Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, a new agency set up to investigate suspected misuse of public money, said in a statement late on Friday that searches took place on November 12 and 13 in Budapest and three other parts of Hungary.

Its investigators found Hungarian forints, euros and US dollars in farm buildings, warehouses, a home and “a high-value safe in a secluded location”, as well as beneath the ground in forests. The agency released footage showing officers digging outdoors after dark and examining piles of cash, which was later deposited with the state treasury.

Finance Minister Andras Karman said on Facebook on Friday that 12 treasury employees spent eight hours counting it.

The discovery comes amid an investigation into Miklos Sesztak, Hungary’s development minister from 2014 to 2018, who is suspected of receiving more than $37.2m in bribes and kickbacks tied to overpriced secondhand bus purchases by a state transport company and government construction projects.

He was detained in September and denies wrongdoing.

Prime Minister Peter Magyar, whose centre-right, pro-European Tisza party ended Orban’s 16 years in power in April, said on Facebook on Friday that the recovery signalled the end of what he called the “Fidesz-KDNP mafia”.

Fidesz is Orban’s right-wing party, while KDNP, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, was its smaller governing ally.

Orban has previously accused the new government of using the investigations to force him out of politics.

Other former ministers have been arrested in separate cases, as has Gyorgy Matolcsy, the former governor of Hungary’s central bank, which sets monetary policy.

His case concerns alleged misuse of public assets held by a central bank foundation. Matolcsy has denied wrongdoing.

A survey published this week by Hungarian news website HVG by pollster Median suggested that 70 percent of respondents considered investigating suspected corruption under Orban and holding those responsible accountable very important.