Nearly $20 million discovered in Hungary’s forests and buildings in corruption probe | Corruption News
A former minister is being investigated for corruption as Hungary’s new government probes corruption allegations during the rule of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Published on November 14, 2026
Hungarian investigators discovered $19.5 million in hidden cash, including bundles dug up in forests, during a corruption probe involving a former minister of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, a new agency created to investigate alleged misuse of public money, said in a statement on Friday that searches took place on November 12 and 13 in Budapest and three other regions of Hungary.
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His investigators found Hungarian forints, euros and US dollars in agricultural buildings, warehouses, a house and “a valuable safe in a remote location”, as well as underground in forests. The agency released footage showing officers digging outside after dark and examining piles of cash, which were then deposited into the Treasury.
Finance Minister Andras Karman said on Facebook on Friday that 12 Treasury employees spent eight hours counting it.
The discovery comes as part of an investigation into Miklos Sesztak, Hungarian Development Minister from 2014 to 2018, suspected of having received more than $37.2 million in bribes linked to purchases of overpriced used buses by a state transport company and government construction projects.
He was arrested in September and denies any wrongdoing.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar, whose pro-European center-right Tisza party ended Orban’s 16 years in power in April, said on Facebook on Friday that the takeover marked 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 his smallest ally in power.
Orban has already 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 an alleged misuse of public assets held by a central bank foundation. Matolcsy has denied any wrongdoing.
A survey published this week by Hungarian news site HVG by the Median survey institute suggests that 70 percent of respondents consider it very important to investigate suspected corruption under Orban and hold those responsible to account.
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