European and international arrest warrant issued for son of former head of Hungarian National Bank goes into effect

The investigating judge has approved the motion filed by the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office and has on Tuesday ordered that a European and international arrest warrant be issued for Ádám Matolcsy and György Stofa.

Ádám Matolcsy’s father, György Matolcsy served as governor of the Hungarian National Bank between 2013-2026. Matolcsy was detained last week on suspicion of having committed economic fraud and other crimes resulting in particularly significant financial loss, related to a minor thread of the investigation into what has become known in Hungary as the MNB-case.

During his father’s tenure as head of the central bank, Ádám Matolcsy and his closest friends amassed huge fortunes-in part through winning overpriced, state-funded tenders of the institution. As the former head of one of the bank’s companies (Optima Befektetési Zrt) established during this time, György Stofa played an important role in the maneuver attempted shortly before György Matolcsy's term at the central bank was up, but he had previously also appeared in the management of numerous companies linked to the central bank and played an active role in the story of Villa Nicole on Mykonos, which is linked to Ádám Matolcsy.

According to a statement from the Budapest Metropolitan Court, neither Matolcsy Jr nor Stofa are currently residing at their registered Hungarian addresses. “At the same time, there is evidence that they have left the country and are presumably somewhere outside Europe. Nevertheless, the court found it justified to also search for them within the territory of the European Union,” the court wrote. The statement added that the details of the arrest warrants will become available in the registration systems once the administrative procedures are completed.

The ruling will be sent to the Ministry of Justice and the National Center for International Criminal Cooperation (NEBEK), where the warrants will also be entered into the relevant international databases, namely those of Interpol and Europol. Thus, if the wanted person is stopped by police in, say Dubai or Vienna, the system will immediately indicate that there is an arrest warrant in effect against them.

However, extradition is not automatic in this case either. Double criminality must first be verified. “In other words, the act which the wanted person is suspected of must be classified as a criminal offense in both the issuing country and the executing state,” Gergő Bozó, spokesperson for the Budapest Metropolitan Court, previously told Telex.

Although there is a common misconception that if someone flees to a country with which Hungary has no bilateral extradition treaty (such as Thailand, the United Arab Emirates/Dubai, or certain Caribbean or South American states), they are beyond the reach of the law there, in reality, international criminal cooperation is much more complex.

Even without an extradition treaty, Hungary may, within the framework of international legal assistance, request the offender’s extradition through diplomatic channels based on the so-called principle of reciprocity. If the receiving country agrees to extradite the wanted person—for example, based on the promise that Hungary will do the same in a similar future case—the extradition can take place.

The order was issued by the same judge who, last Friday, ordered the arrest of György Matolcsy, the former governor of the Hungarian National Bank, Tamás Sándor, the permanent attorney for Ádám Matolcsy’s companies, and Mihály Valkó, a senior executive at a company linked to Ádám Matolcsy and his friend István Száraz. According to a statement from the Budapest Metropolitan Court, Ádám Matolcsy may be charged with acting as an instigator of economic fraud, causing particularly significant financial loss, as well as with instigating the use of a forged private document. György Stofa may have been an accomplice in economic fraud causing particularly significant financial loss, as well as in using a forged private document.

As mentioned above, the former governor of the central bank and his associates are suspected of economic fraud resulting in particularly significant financial damage and other criminal offenses. Previously, on September 21, investigating prosecutors visited several locations in connection with one of the threads of the MNB case, including György Matolcsy’s home.

According to the investigation, in the final days of Matolcsy being at the helm of the institution, and just a few days prior to the State Audit Office publishing its report about the MNB case and the fate of the 650 million euros worth of forints, there was some unusual restructuring around PADME, the central bank's foundation. Specifically, on February 28, 2025, right before Matolcsy’s departure, Optima Investment Ltd., which managed the foundation’s assets, transferred the shares of Optima Investment Fund Management to a private equity fund called Közép-Európai III. Magántőkealap under a contract described as a securities loan. Behind the complicated company names stood a familiar figure: the private equity fund was managed by Quartz Investment Fund Management, whose majority owner was István Száraz-a longtime friend of Ádám Matolcsy, the governor’s son.

Under this arrangement, it was not the foundation’s assets themselves that were sold. Instead, the ownership rights of the company which played a key role in managing those assets would have been transferred to the private equity fund for several years.

However, the plan was thwarted by the arrival of Mihály Varga: after the new governor of the central bank took office, the foundation’s former board of trustees stepped down, and the controversial contract was terminated within a few days. Varga and his team were not satisfied with simply reversing the transaction though: they launched an investigation and, in April, filed a criminal complaint. Quartz later tried to explain the transaction by claiming that it intended to provide professional assistance to Optima; however, documents obtained by Telex suggested that the ownership restructuring was likely prepared well in advance.

Although Ádám Matolcsy did not officially feature in this story—and there had previously been no evidence that he was even informally involved in the matter—those familiar with the case say that Stofa is his trusted associate. As for Ádám Matolcsy’s role, the Central Investigative Prosecutor’s Office said that the true purpose of the sham securities loan agreement was to “transfer the right to control the assets of the PADME Foundation to a group of individuals over whom György Matolcsy would retain influence even after his term as central bank governor expired, thereby enabling him and his son to make investments in line with their own interests for the purpose of financial gain.” However, this move resulted in a financial loss of several hundred million forints.