Hungarian authorities said they seized more than €17.5 million in cash buried in forests and hidden in other places across the country this week.

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On 12 and 13 November, the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office (NVVH) carried out coordinated searches at multiple locations across Hungary, including in Budapest and the counties of Pest, Békés and Nógrád, as part of a criminal investigation involving Miklós Seszták, a former minister of national development.

During the searches, investigators uncovered large amounts of cash hidden in a variety of spots: buried in forests, concealed in agricultural buildings and warehouses, stashed inside residential properties and stored in a high-value safe in a remote location.

Over the course of the two-day operation, investigators recovered a total of 5,071,632,000 forints, €2,658,350 and $1,257,100. On Friday, NVVH staff paid the cash into the Hungarian State Treasury.

According to the investigation, there is reason to suspect that between 2015 and 2018, Seszták and the CEO of Hungarian National Asset Management (MNV) received more than 11 billion forints in illicit payments from representatives of companies contracted by Volánbusz, a national bus operator.

The NVVH previously announced that an earlier search carried out in October at the Kisvárda home of Seszták had uncovered safes of a type more commonly used by financial service providers and pawnshops.

On 30 September, the Buda Central District Court ordered the detention of Seszták at the request of the NVVH.

In late October, the court announced that Seszták's detention had been extended until 30 January. It cited the seriousness of the case and the risk that he might flee or go into hiding.