Hungary's Anti-Graft Office Seizes $19.5 Million in Hidden Cash, Some of It Buried in Woods, in the Case of Orbán-Era Ex-Minister Seszták
Hungary's National Asset Recovery and Protection Office (NVVH) said on Friday, November 13, that investigators searching in a criminal case against former National Development Minister Miklós Seszták had recovered large quantities of hidden cash over two days, worth about $19.5 million in total, some of it buried underground in forests.
The office said the coordinated searches took place on November 12 and 13 in Budapest and in Pest, Békés and Nógrád counties. The two-day haul came to 5,071,632,000 forints, €2,658,350 and $1,257,100, deposited with the Hungarian State Treasury on Friday evening. The cash had been buried in forests and concealed in agricultural buildings, warehouses, a residential property and a high-value safe in a secluded location.
Seszták served as national development minister in Viktor Orbán's government from 2014 to 2018 and has been detained since late September. Prosecutors suspect him of obtaining more than 11 billion forints in unlawful benefits through contracts including the state bus operator Volánbusz's purchases of second-hand buses at inflated prices. Former state asset manager Norbert Szivek and businessman Dániel Jellinek were also detained in September in the wider investigation. Seszták denies wrongdoing and is presumed innocent unless a court rules otherwise.
The NVVH is a recently established body with investigative and prosecutorial powers, set up under Prime Minister Péter Magyar to pursue cases of misused public funds. Magyar won the election in April, ending Orbán's 16 years in power, after promising to investigate alleged corruption under the previous government. In recent weeks, two other Orbán-era ministers and Orbán's younger brother Áron have been taken into custody in separate cases, while Orbán's Fidesz party still lists Seszták among its «political prisoners» on its official website.
Source: National Asset Recovery and Protection Office (NVVH
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：布达佩斯的匈牙利国会大厦（资料图）。Pierre Blaché 摄，CC0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest (file photo). Photo by Pierre Blaché, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
