Tompa: Indications point to Orbán personally ordering Oschadbank detentions

Tibor Tompa, head of Kyiv's Hungarian community, told Radio NV there are indications former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán personally ordered the March detention of a Ukrainian Oschadbank cash-in-transit team in Hungary, and that 'very senior officials' from that era are implicated. He said investigations continue and that Hungarian society is demanding accountability from current leadership.

Hungary's Counter Terrorism Center had stopped and impounded two armored vehicles carrying $40 million, €35 million and 9 kilograms of gold, citing suspected money laundering, even though the shipment was moving away from Hungary, not into it. Fidesz politicians at the time floated the shipment was meant to fund a rival party's campaign, a claim undermined by the direction the convoy was traveling.

The vehicles, money, and gold were eventually returned after a change of government, and on Aug. 19 Hungary's tax authority closed the criminal case against the detained Ukrainian employees, finding no elements of a crime. A June investigation by Telex reported the seizure was Orbán's personal decision made on insufficient legal grounds.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.