Hungarian investigators find $19.5 million in hidden cash in corruption probe
Hungarian investigators have found $19.5 million in hidden cash during a corruption probe into a former minister under ex-Prime Minister Viktor Orban, authorities said.
The National Asset Recovery and Protection Office said searches took place on November 12 and 13 in Budapest and three other parts of Hungary. 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 cash amounted to "5,071,632,000 forints, €2,658,350 and $1,257,100", bringing the combined value to $19.5 million, the office said. It has been deposited into the Hungarian State Treasury.
The discovery is part of an investigation into Miklos Sesztak, Hungary’s development minister from 2014 to 2018, who is suspected of receiving more than $37.2 million 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. Matolcsy has denied wrongdoing.
