BUDAPEST, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash, some buried in forests or hidden in farm buildings and warehouses, in a bribery probe into Miklos Sesztak, a minister under former right-wing leader Viktor Orban.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar ousted nationalist Orban after 16 years in power in an April election, pledging to mend ties with the European Union, marred by years of conflict under Orban, and to launch a sweeping anti-corruption drive into allegations of graft.
Two former ministers from Orban's government and former central bank chief Gyorgy Matolcsy are under arrest over graft accusations in separate investigations. They have denied wrongdoing.
Authorities have also detained Orban's brother in a people-smuggling case, which the former leader had dismissed as an act of political revenge.
The clampdown is part of an anti-graft drive the centre-right Magyar has dubbed "Operation Purgatory", considered "very important" by 70% of respondents in a survey by the Median pollster released on news website HVG this week.
"During the searches, investigators found large amounts of cash buried in forests, hidden in farm buildings, warehouses and a residential property, and stored in a high-value safe in a secluded location," the National Asset Recovery and Protection Office said late on Friday.
The cash — 5.07 billion forints ($15.33 million), €2.66 million ($2.93 million) and $1.26 million — took a dozen State Treasury workers eight hours to tot up using five banknote counters, said Finance Minister Andras Karman.
Sesztak, who was Orban's development minister between 2014 and 2018, has denied wrongdoing. His lawyer, Gabor Papp, did not respond to an emailed request for comment on the recovery office's statement.
Magyar said the recovered cash signalled the end of what he described as a "mafia" led by Orban's right-wing Fidesz party and his Christian Democrat allies during Orban's 16-year rule.
Gabor Torok, a political scientist, said images of the large piles of cash were so vivid that they likely spelled doom for Fidesz, whose public support halved to just 16% of voters by November from levels before the vote, a Median survey showed.
($1 = 330.82 forints)
($1 = 0.9074 euros)
(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by William Mallard)
