$19.5 MILLION IN CASH FOUND BURIED AND HIDDEN ACROSS HUNGARY
Hungarian investigators have recovered approximately $19.5 million in cash during a corruption investigation involving Miklós Seszták, a former national development minister who served under Viktor Orbán from 2014 to 2018.
The money was not found in one location. Investigators uncovered bundles buried in forests, concealed inside agricultural buildings, warehouses and a residential property, as well as stored in an expensive safe at a secluded site.
The haul included more than 5 billion Hungarian forints, €2.65 million and $1.25 million. Twelve Treasury employees reportedly needed eight hours and five money-counting machines to process it all.
Seszták is suspected of receiving billions of forints in bribes and kickbacks connected to state construction projects and allegedly overpriced purchases of more than 600 used buses by Hungary’s state transport companies. He was detained in September and denies wrongdoing.
Authorities have not yet legally established that all of the recovered money belonged personally to Seszták. His lawyer stressed that several suspects are involved in the wider investigation.
The discovery is part of Prime Minister Péter Magyar’s sweeping investigation into alleged corruption during Orbán’s 16 years in power. Other former officials are also in custody in separate cases, while Orbán has dismissed the campaign as political persecution.
For years, Orbán’s government weakened Hungary’s relationship with the European Union and repeatedly obstructed collective support for Ukraine. Now, the political system built during his rule is being opened piece by piece—and investigators are quite literally digging through forests to uncover what was left behind.