Former head of Hungary's Counterterrorism Center questioned as suspect in relation to raid on Ukrainian cash transport

According to a statement released on Monday, the Budapest Investigative Prosecutor’s Office questioned former police Lieutenant General János Hajdu—who was dismissed from his post as head of the Counterterrorism Center (TEK) in late May—as a suspect in the investigation into the unlawful detention of the Ukrainian cash transporters. The Prosecutor's Office said that Hajdu is suspected of seven counts of unlawful detention and mistreatment; according to the Investigative Prosecutor’s Office, he filed a complaint against the charges, denied committing the crime, and made a statement. The suspect remains free.

According to reasonable suspicion, on March 4, 2026, the Director General of TEK held a briefing—at the request of the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV)—for senior officials about the operational tasks relating to what would later become dubbed as “the gold convoy” case in Hungary. During the briefing, Hajdu said that vehicles transporting large quantities of U.S. dollar and euro bills and investment gold bars from Austria through Hungary to Ukraine would have to be stopped and the occupants detained. According to a statement from the Prosecutor's Office, the Director General

ordered the apprehension of the Ukrainian citizens on suspicion of criminal activity and gave instructions that they should be brought in with handcuffs and blindfolds.

At 1:00 p.m. on March 5, 2026, at the Alacska rest stop along the M0 highway, TEK’s officers ordered the crews of the two Ukrainian cash-in-transit vehicles to exit the vehicles, forced the seven Ukrainian citizens to lie on the ground, handcuffed them behind their backs, and then, in order to obstruct their vision, placed covers over their heads which had been rotated by approximately 180 degrees-a use contrary to their intended purpose. János Hajdu personally directed the operation from the scene. On the Director General’s orders, the inspection that had been initiated by NAV's financial investigators had to be suspended because the vehicles and the Ukrainian nationals needed to be taken to the premises of the Counterterrorism Center.

According to the reports prepared by TEK, the detentions were terminated within two hours because the Ukrainian citizens suspected of criminal activity were handed over to the NAV. However, according to the statement, János Hajdu was aware that, contrary to what the reports stated, the NAV did not subject the detained individuals to criminal proceedings but instead questioned them as witnesses, so they remained in the custody of TEK. The inspectors of the tax authority requested several times that the handcuffs be removed from the Ukrainians they had already questioned as witnesses, and indicated that they did not plan to take any further procedural action, but the director general of TEK did not comply.

According to the statement, TEK officers, acting on the director-general’s orders, detained the cash transporters—who were legally classified as witnesses—for at least nine hours and kept the handcuffs on them and had them wear blindfolds in a manner that violated human dignity during the entire time. The Prosecutor's Office stated that this constituted the mistreatment of the victims and also determined that the cash transporters’ personal liberty had been restricted without legal basis. The Prosecutor’s Office also stated that Hajdu could remain free, because, in their view, since his employment had ended, there is no reason to suspect that he would repeat the offense; it appears unlikely that he would attempt to evade the proceedings; and the risk of him obstructing the investigation is also not likely, as Hajdu has been aware of the investigation for months.

The whole story in brief

On March 5, members of the Hungarian Counterterrorism Center apprehended seven Ukrainian citizens and seized gold and foreign currency worth more than 27 billion forints from their CIT vans. According to the Prosecutor's Office, they acted based on a tip. It subsequently emerged that one of the intelligence agencies, the Constitution Protection Office, was the one to tip them off, and did so based on data collected from another agency, the Information Office.

The lawyer of the Ukrainian cash couriers later reported at a press conference that, to their knowledge, contrary to the official record, only TEK officers were present during the raid, and the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) only initiated proceedings in the case later. According to the Ukrainians’ lawyer, the recipient of the money—the Ukrainian savings bank Oschadbank—and the Austrian Raiffeisen bank, which had sent the cash, there was nothing unusual about the shipment, and the couriers were in possession of all the necessary permits for transporting it from Austria to Ukraine.

Despite this, the Orbán government and its propaganda machine began claiming that there was a problem with the shipment, that there may have been money laundering involved, and that the cash may have been linked to the financing of the Tisza Party—however, no evidence has been presented to date to support these accusations and insinuations. On March 10, a decree was issued stating that “the lawful ownership of the assets seized from the Ukrainian cash transporting vehicles could not be clarified at the scene.”

Telex was the first to report that it was Viktor Orbán who had made the decision to intercept the Ukrainian “gold convoy,” and even the timing of the raid was determined "on the highest level". However, according to sources familiar with the details of the operation Telex spoke with, there was no professional justification for the raid. A prosecutor who was able to review the files of the secret service concluded that “the Constitution Protection Office did not provide sufficient evidence to support the allegations of there being a national security risk.”

In early May, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the cash shipment seized in Hungary had been returned to Ukraine. “I am grateful to Hungary for its constructive attitude and civilized gesture,” he said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha saw the return of the cash shipment as a signal of the new Hungarian government’s constructive approach.

Last week, 444 reported that it had come into possession of a photo depicting what appears to be a document from the prosecutor’s office dated June 9, which lists the individuals whose involvement in the so-called “gold convoy” case needs to be clarified. The paper quotes the document as naming former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Örs Farkas, the former state secretary overseeing national security services; János Hajdu, the former director general of the Counterterrorism Center; and Tamás Demeter, the former deputy chairman for criminal and law enforcement affairs at the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) as the individuals responsible for “making the major decisions and giving directives" regarding the operation.

After the article was published, Prime MinisterPéter Magyar indicated on his social media page that, in light of the leaked document, he expects an immediate response from the prosecutor’s office as to whether Viktor Orbán and János Hajdu had been questioned as suspects in the case.

Previously, the Prime Minister had given the Prosecutor General until 3:00 p.m. last Thursday to provide an update on the case of the Ukrainian cash transport, adding that if he failed to do so, he would release some “quite interesting and important” information he had at his disposal after the deadline had passed. In response, the Prosecutor General wrote that they had previously updated the public about the case on several occasions, adding that there were two separate cases, and that, according to the professional opinion of the specialist department of the Office of the Prosecutor General, there was reasonable suspicion that certain high-ranking individuals have committed a crime, while the investigative prosecutor’s office preferred a somewhat different sequence of procedural steps.

In any case, the attorneys representing the cash transporters submitted a motion to the Budapest Investigative Prosecutor’s Office that day, in which they requested that János Hajdú, Örs Farkas, Dr. Tamás Demeter, and Dr. Viktor Orbán be taken into custody, and that their arrest be sought for unlawful detention involving mistreatment which constitutes a violation of Section 303(2) of the Hungarian Criminal Code and is classified as coercive interrogation.