In Hungary, law enforcement officers seized cash totalling around 19.5 million dollars, some of which had been buried in the woods. The money was discovered during searches carried out on 12\u201313 November 2026 as part of an investigation into Mikl\u00f3s Sest\u00e1k, a former Minister for National Development who served in Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s government. The discovery was reported by Hungary\u2019s National Office for Asset Recovery and Protection (NVVH). The information was confirmed by Reuters and the Associated Press. However, there is no evidence that Orb\u00e1n personally buried the money.<\/p>\n
According to the NVVH, law enforcement officers carried out large-scale searches in Budapest and three Hungarian counties \u2014 Pest, B\u00e9k\u00e9s and N\u00f3gr\u00e1d.<\/p>\n
Investigators discovered cash in several hiding places: some of the money had been buried in the woods, whilst other sums were kept in farm buildings, storage facilities, a residential property and a high-security safe in a remote location.<\/p>\n
In total, the police seized:<\/p>\n
5,071,632,000 Hungarian forints;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
2,658,350 euros;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
1,257,100 US dollars.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The total value of the items found is approximately 19.5 million dollars.<\/p>\n
Minister of Finance Hungary<\/a> Andr\u00e1s Karman<\/strong> He reported that 12 employees of the State Treasury had been brought in to count the cash. They worked for eight hours, using five banknote-counting machines.<\/p>\n All the seized funds were transferred to the Hungarian State Treasury.<\/p>\n The searches were carried out as part of criminal proceedings against the former Minister for National Development Mikl\u00f3s Sestak<\/strong>, who held the post from 2014 to 2018 during the reign of Viktor Orban<\/strong>.<\/p>\n According to the investigation, Shestak may have received bribes and illegal payments in return for facilitating the public procurement of buses at inflated prices, as well as for his involvement in construction projects.<\/p>\n The total amount of suspected illegal payments is estimated at over 37 million dollars.<\/p>\n The former minister was taken into custody at the end of September 2026. He denies any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n Shestak\u2019s solicitor G\u00e1bor Papp<\/strong> He told the Hungarian publication Telex that the official statement from the law enforcement agencies does not establish that the seized cash belongs to his client. According to the defence lawyer, there are other suspects in the case, and the funds found do not belong to Shestak.<\/p>\nWho is suspected of corruption?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Is Viktor Orb\u00e1n involved in the discovery of the money?<\/strong><\/h2>\n