Hungarian authorities have recovered millions in cash, including money buried in forests and concealed in farm buildings and warehouses, during a bribery investigation involving former minister Miklos Sesztak.
The cash, recovered as part of an anti-corruption operation launched by Prime Minister Peter Magyar, is worth about A$30 million. Sesztak, who served as development minister under former leader Viktor Orban between 2014 and 2018, has denied wrongdoing.
The National Asset Recovery and Protection Office said investigators found large amounts of money during searches of forests, farm buildings, warehouses and a residential property. Some was also stored in a high-value safe at a secluded location.
Finance Minister Andras Karman said 12 State Treasury employees took eight hours to count the recovered banknotes using counting machines.
Magyar, who ousted Orban after his 16-year rule in an April election, has pledged to repair strained relations with the European Union and investigate allegations of graft. His government has named the campaign “Operation Purgatory”.
A survey by pollster Median, reported by HVG this week, found that 70 per cent of respondents considered the operation “very important”.
Magyar said the recovered money showed that what he described as a “mafia” led by Orban’s right-wing Fidesz party and its Christian Democrat allies was coming to an end.
Fidesz said it hoped Sesztak was not connected to the cash. In a Facebook statement, the party said it “cannot associate itself with anyone who fails” to uphold the law and trusted that the images released by the asset recovery office had nothing to do with the former minister.
Sesztak is a member of parliament’s Economic and Energy Affairs Committee. His lawyer, Gabor Papp, did not respond to a request for comment on the recovery office’s statement, but told Telex that the seized cash did not belong to Sesztak.
Mr Papp also said the bribery case involved other suspects. No further details of the investigation were provided.
Political scientist Gabor Torok said the images of the cash were likely to damage Fidesz. The party’s support had fallen to 16 per cent of voters in November, according to a Median survey, around half its level before the election.
