Overview
- The National Asset Recovery and Protection Office said it found the money during searches on Thursday and Friday and deposited 5,071,632,000 forints, €2,658,350 and $1,257,100 into the Hungarian State Treasury.
- The seizures are part of a bribery probe into former development minister Miklós Seszták, who is in pre-trial detention and has denied any wrongdoing.
- Prime Minister Péter Magyar presented the operation as proof of ending an Orbán‑era “mafia” and placed the raids at the center of his wider anti‑corruption drive called Operation Purgatory.
- Separate investigations have led to the arrests of two other former ministers and ex‑central bank chief György Matolcsy, and authorities recently detained Áron Orbán in an unrelated people‑smuggling probe; Fidesz says the published images are not linked to Seszták and calls the actions political.
- The public tallying of cash and high‑profile detentions intensify scrutiny of Hungary’s governance since Viktor Orbán’s rule and could shape the new government’s legal cases and its effort to restore ties with the European Union.