Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash hidden in buildings and buried in forests as part of a bribery investigation into Miklós Seszták, a former minister under ex-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
The National Asset Recovery and Protection Office (NVVH) said on Friday that investigators discovered large sums of money during a two-day search across secluded locations in Hungary.
The cash was found buried in woodlands, concealed in farm buildings, warehouses and residential properties, and stored in a high-value safe.
Authorities recovered 5.07 billion Hungarian forints ($15.33 million), €2.66 million ($2.93 million) and $1.26 million, bringing the total to approximately $19.5 million. The money has been deposited into the Hungarian State Treasury.
Finance Minister András Kármán said 12 treasury employees spent eight hours counting the banknotes using five counting machines.
Seszták, who served as Orbán's national development minister from 2014 to 2018, is accused of accepting bribes in a scheme involving the state transport company. He has denied wrongdoing.
The investigation forms part of a broader anti-corruption campaign launched by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who defeated Orbán in April's election, ending his 16 years in power.
Magyar has described the campaign as “Operation Purgatory”, pledging to investigate alleged corruption under the previous administration and restore Hungary's relations with the European Union.
Following the discovery, Magyar said the recovered money signalled the end of what he described as a “mafia” linked to Orbán's Fidesz party and its Christian Democrat allies.
The anti-corruption drive has also led to the arrests of other senior figures from Orbán's administration, including another former minister and former central bank governor György Matolcsy. All have denied the allegations against them.
Earlier this week, Hungarian authorities detained Orbán's younger brother and three others in a separate people-smuggling investigation.
The former prime minister condemned the move as political revenge, accusing the government of attempting to eliminate its political opponents.
The investigations have coincided with a sharp decline in support for Orbán's Fidesz party. A Median survey published in November showed its backing had fallen to 16 per cent of voters, roughly half its level before the April election.
Political analyst Gábor Török suggested that images of the recovered cash could further damage the party's standing.
Another Median survey, published by Hungarian news website HVG, found that 70 per cent of respondents considered Magyar's anti-corruption campaign very important.
The latest findings come as Magyar's government continues efforts to investigate alleged financial misconduct under the previous administration, while Orbán maintains that the investigations are politically motivated.
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