Cash totalling approximately $19.5 million was seized from Miklós Szešták, Hungary’s former Minister for National Development. Some of the money was kept in hiding places, including a spot buried in a wood.
Searches took place on 12 and 13 November at several addresses in Budapest and in the counties of Pest, Békés and Nógrád as part of a corruption investigation. The investigation is being led by the recently established National Directorate for Asset Recovery and Protection.
According to Hungarian and international media reports, a total of 5,071,632,000 forints, 2,658,350 euros and 1,257,100 dollars were seized. The cash was found in agricultural, warehouse and residential buildings.
Hungarian Finance Minister András Kárman reported that it took 12 staff members from the State Treasury eight hours and five banknote counters to count the seized money.
Szesztak headed the Ministry of National Development in Viktor Orbán’s government from 2014 to 2018. According to the investigation, during that period he and Norbert Szivék, the head of the state-owned asset management company, received more than 11 billion forints – over 33 million dollars – in bribes from companies linked to the state-owned bus operator Volánbusz.
The former minister was arrested at the end of September and remanded in custody; he has been stripped of his parliamentary immunity. Szeszták denies all the charges.