Hungary launches probe into seizure of Ukrainian cash and gold

BUDAPEST, June 17 (Reuters) – Hungary has launched an internal investigation of its tax authority, counter-terrorism forces and other agencies over the seizure of a routine Ukrainian bank cash transport under the previous government.

Seven Ukrainians transporting $82 ⁠million in cash and gold in two armoured vehicles were briefly detained in March on suspicion ​of money laundering, at a time when the government of Viktor Orban, an ally of Russia who has since been ousted, was at loggerheads with Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Oschadbank said its employees had been engaged in a routine operation of the kind that it had carried out weekly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Prime Minister Peter Magyar, overwhelming winner of April’s election, said the prosecutor general “must address the matter without delay”.

Orban had made scepticism towards support for Ukraine in its war with Russia a central plank of his campaign, and vetoed new European Union sanctions on Moscow as well as a loan for Kyiv.

Hungary returned the cash and gold to Ukraine days before Magyar’s inauguration.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Kevin Liffey)