Hungary Seizes $19.5m in Cash Buried in Forests During Graft Inquiry
Hungarian authorities have seized cash worth $19.5 million (£14.8 million) that investigators found buried in forests and hidden in other places during an anti-corruption inquiry into former minister Miklós Seszták, The Guardian reported.
The search was carried out by the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, known as NVVH, an anti-graft body set up as part of the accountability drive of Prime Minister Péter Magyar. The office searched several locations on Thursday and Friday as part of criminal proceedings against Seszták.
Investigators said they found cash buried in forests. They also found money hidden in agricultural and warehouse buildings and in residential properties, and stored in high-value safes in secluded locations. Across the two-day search, the total came to 5,071,632,000 forints, €2,658,350 and US$1,257,100.
Counting the money took considerable time. Finance minister András Kármán said 12 Treasury employees spent eight hours counting it using five counting machines. NVVH staff then deposited the seized cash into the account of the Hungarian State Treasury, the government's central finance body.
Seszták served as Hungary's minister of national development between 2014 and 2018. He is accused of taking bribes in a scheme involving the state transport company buying secondhand buses at inflated prices.
The case comes as Hungary's politics have shifted sharply. Magyar won a landslide election victory in April, ending Viktor Orbán's 16 years in power. Since then, Seszták, two other Orbán-era ministers and Orbán's brother have been taken into custody in different cases as graft inquiries have gathered pace.
