Nearly $20m (£14.8m) in cash has been found hidden in farm buildings and buried in forests as part of an investigation into a former minister of Viktor Orbán, authorities said. Miklós Seszták, who served as national development minister for four of the former prime minister’s 16 years in government, is accused of accepting bribes as part of a scheme involving the state transportation company. He has denied any wrongdoing. Hungary’s new Prime Minister, Péter Magyar, ousted Orbán in a landslide election in April with a promise to launch a broad anti-corruption campaign. On Friday, after two days of searching for the cash, found in remote places across the country, Magyar described it as the end of the “mafia.” Investigators found wads of cash in safes, buried in forests and hidden in farm and residential buildings. warehouses, within the framework of the investigation into Seszták, the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office (NVVH) said in a statement. The cash amounted to “5,071,632,000 guilders, 2,658,350 euros and $1,257,100,” he added, bringing the combined value to $19.5 million. According to the organization, it was deposited in the Hungarian Public Treasury. The NVVH was created to investigate allegations of corruption during Orbán’s government, which Magyar has dubbed “Operation Purgatory.” Magyar promised Hungarians “regime change” during elections earlier this year and has aimed to undo many Orbán-era policies since taking office. Accusations of corruption and cronyism have long dogged Orbán, who during his tenure turned Hungary into what the EU characterized as an “electoral autocracy.”
