Investigation into money laundering allegations against Ukrainian cash couriers in Hungary closed by tax authority

The Criminal Directorate of the Hungarian National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) has closed the investigation into the Ukrainian cash transporters due to there being no evidence of a crime, attorney Dr. Lóránt Horváth, representing the Ukrainian bank Oschadbank, announced on Wednesday.

According to the NAV, the cash and gold of unknown origin mentioned in the complaint, as well as the banknotes and gold seized during the inspection can be traced back to an interbank transaction between Raiffeisen Bank and Oschadbank; additionally, Raiffeisen Bank International AG has provided documentation verifying the origin of the banknotes and the precious metals which had been sold and were being transported, as well as the payment of the purchase price by Oschadbank.

The criminal investigation has confirmed that the banknotes and the gold had not been obtained through criminal activity; and there was no doubt as to the lawful origin and source of the assets; therefore, in the absence of the legal elements of a crime, the act does not constitute a criminal offense, and no suspicion of any other criminal offense has arisen, stated Dr. Lóránt Horváth.

The NAV had previously suspended the investigation in July. At that time, a decision to fully close the case had not yet been made, but they did announce that, based on the information available at that point, the cash transporters had not committed a crime.

What is this case?

On March 5, operatives of the Counterterrorism Center (Terrorelhárítási Központ-TEK) detained seven Ukrainian citizens near Budapest and seized gold and foreign currency worth more than 27 billion forints from the CIT vehicles they were escorting. According to the Prosecutor's Office, the unit was acting in response to a tip. It was later revealed that the source of the tip was one of the intelligence agencies, the Constitutional Protection Office, which was prompted by information received from another agency, the Information Office.

The lawyer for the Ukrainian cash couriers later reported at a press conference that to their knowledge, and contrary to the official report, only members of the TEK were present during the raid, and that the NAV only initiated proceedings in the case later. According to the Ukrainians’ lawyer, the Ukrainian savings bank, Oschadbank, which was recipient, and the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank-which had sent the funds-, there was nothing unusual about the shipment, and the cash couriers were in possession of all the permits required for transporting the shipment from Austria to Ukraine.

This did not prevent the Orbán government and its propaganda machine from claiming that there was a problem with the shipment, that money laundering may have been involved, and that the money might even be linked to the financing of the Tisza Party (which was in opposition at the time)—but to date, no evidence has been presented to support these accusations and insinuations. On March 10, a government decree was issued stating that “the legal title to the assets seized from the Ukrainian money-transporting vehicles could not be clarified on the spot.”

Telex was the first to report that it was Viktor Orbán who had decided to intercept the Ukrainian “gold convoy,” and even the timing of the raid was decided at the highest levels of government. However, according to sources familiar with the details of the operation against the “gold convoy” who spoke to Telex, there was no professional justification for the raid. A prosecutor who was granted access to the secret service’s files concluded that “the Constitution Protection Office did not provide sufficient evidence to substantiate the claims of the shipment posing a risk to national security.”

At the end of June, 444 reported that it had obtained a photo of an allegedly official document from the prosecutor’s office dated June 9, which lists the individuals whose involvement in the so-called “gold convoy” case needed to be clarified. The paper quotes the document, which names 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 persons who “made substantive decisions and issued instructions". According to the newspaper’s sources, during his interrogation, Hajdu claimed that he had learned about the Ukrainian money couriers from State Secretary Örs Farkas.