Corruption in the Orban era: $20 million found buried in forest in Hungary in bribery case

In Hungary, law enforcement officers have seized about $19.5 million in cash as part of an investigation into former National Development Minister Miklós Széstak. Some of the money was found in forest caches, and all of the funds were transferred to the country’s State Treasury.

This is reported by Reuters and the Associated Press .

The searches took place on November 12 and 13 in Budapest, as well as in three regions of the country: Pest, Békés, and Nógrád. The money was found in hidden places in forests, farm buildings, warehouses, a residential building, and a large safe.

According to official data from the Hungarian State Property Recovery Office, the following items were seized:

• 5,071,632,000 forints – about 15.33 million dollars;
• 2,658,350 euros – about 2.93 million dollars;
• 1,257,100 US dollars.

It took 12 State Treasury employees 8 hours of continuous work to count the cash. They used 5 banknote counters.

Miklós Széstak headed the Ministry of National Development of Hungary from 2014 to 2018. At the end of September 2026, he was taken into custody on suspicion of receiving bribes and illegal rewards totaling more than $37.2 million.

According to the investigation, the possible corruption schemes concerned the procurement of transport for the state bus company, in particular the purchase of used buses at inflated prices, as well as the implementation of state construction projects. Shestak denies involvement in illegal activities.

The investigation is part of the anti-corruption campaign “Purgatory” launched by the government of Prime Minister Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party won parliamentary elections in April 2026, ending Viktor Orban’s 16-year coalition rule.

Magyar called the discovery of hidden funds the result of the work of the newly created asset recovery department. Orban himself did not comment on the seizure of money in the Šestak case, but previously stated that criminal proceedings against members of his political circle are political in nature.

Two former ministers in Orban’s government and former National Bank of Hungary governor György Matolcsi are also in custody in other investigations. All those involved in these cases deny the charges against them.

By the way, Hungary reported the detention of Aron Orban , the younger brother of former Prime Minister Viktor Orban, in a case of illegal migrant smuggling. Searches and investigations are ongoing in the country.

Meanwhile, claims that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán may have collaborated with communist intelligence services and reported on his colleagues in his youth have come back into the spotlight following the decision to open intelligence archives from that period. Orbán himself claims to have rejected the recruitment attempt.

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