Hungary digs up $19.5M in cash buried in forests in ex-minister graft probe

Hungary's National Asset Recovery and Protection Office (NVVH) said it searched multiple locations on Thursday and Friday as part of criminal proceedings against Miklós Seszták, the country's minister of national development from 2014 to 2018. Investigators turned up cash buried in forests, stashed in agricultural and warehouse buildings and homes, and locked in high-value safes in secluded spots. The two-day haul: 5,071,632,000 forints, €2,658,350 and $1,257,100 — a combined $19.5m (£14.8m).

Seszták is accused of taking bribes in a scheme involving the state transport company, buying secondhand buses at inflated prices. He was taken into custody alongside two other Orbán-era ministers and former premier Viktor Orbán's brother, all in separate cases, as graft inquiries accelerate.

The NVVH, an anti-graft body with sweeping powers created under Prime Minister Péter Magyar's accountability drive, said its staff deposited the money straight into the Hungarian State Treasury's account. Finance minister András Kármán described the logistical end of it on Facebook: 12 Treasury employees spent 8 hours counting the cash with 5 counting machines.

Magyar, who won a landslide election victory in April and ended Orbán's 16 years in power, treated the seizure as a milestone. 'This officially marks the end of the Fidesz-KDNP mafia!' he said, referring to Orbán's former governing coalition.

Orbán has not responded to the latest development. He has previously denounced the probes targeting his inner circle as 'political persecution' aimed at putting him in prison.