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Hungary recovered and returned less than a fifth of the funds identified by Brussels as potentially involved in fraud during the period 2015-2024, according to data from the EU anti-corruption office, OLAF. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is facing a battle for his political future, trailing in opinion polls ahead of next month’s elections, while the opposition accuses him of corruption.
The issue has come at a high cost for Hungary: The European Union in 2022 suspended some 27 billion euros in funds earmarked for the country after finding that political connections were often “decisive” in winning state contracts. According to the European Commission, some 18 billion euros still remain frozen.
Hungary has returned just €250.6 million, about 18 percent, of the €1.39 billion in EU funds that OLAF estimated should be returned to the union budget due to suspected fraudulent processes, according to data shared with the Financial Times by OLAF. In contrast, the rest of the EU countries have recovered 71 percent of the funds identified by OLAF: €5.15 billion out of a total of €7.22 billion.
Hungary accounted for 16 percent of the total EU funds that OLAF considered potentially affected by fraud in the period 2015–2024, a figure that seems disproportionate, given that the country benefited on average around 2.9 percent of total EU spending per year during this period.
This gap is partly explained by a legal loophole: OLAF investigates fraud involving EU funds, but only authorities in member states or the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) can prosecute suspects and recover funds. However, Hungary is not part of the EPPO, leaving responsibility solely to the national prosecutor.
“This is very worrying… there are many recurring problems that are identified but not followed up. This is a concrete indication that there is a lack of will to act ,” said Tineke Strik, a Green MEP in the European Parliament who led a report on the rule of law in Hungary.
Orbán and his associates have denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and he has described the suspension of EU funds as a political attempt to oust him from power.
A recent Financial Times investigation found that companies owned by 13 people close to Orbán’s administration won 14 percent of all state tenders and 12 billion euros in EU-funded contracts between Orbán’s coming to power in 2010 and the end of 2025. This included 700 million euros given after the EU had started freezing funds. In the five years before Orbán came to power, these companies had benefited from just 379 million euros in EU funds.
OLAF opened 87 investigations related to Hungary during 2015–2024 and recommended prosecution in 52 cases. In the rest of the EU, 2,144 investigations were opened and judicial proceedings were recommended in 509 cases. One of the main concerns raised by investigators is customs fraud. OLAF asked the Hungarian authorities to recover €285 million in evaded duties during the period 2015–2024, but in practice only around €633,000 was seized.
Investigators have also expressed concern about the failure of Hungarian authorities to prosecute suspects based on OLAF's recommendations. The anti-fraud agency requested judicial action in 52 cases, but Hungarian authorities only brought charges in 17 of them.
In one high-profile case, Hungarian authorities failed to follow OLAF’s recommendation to investigate a case involving Orbán’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz. In 2017, OLAF concluded that his company, Elios Innovatív, had won public lighting tenders in rigged processes to eliminate competition, demanding the return of 43.7 million euros.
Although OLAF found evidence of criminal conduct and recommended opening proceedings, Hungarian authorities dropped the case. Tiborcz told the Financial Times last year that OLAF's recommendation was politically motivated.
" It was a controversial issue... Hungarian prosecutors have twice found no violations ," he said.
Tiborcz, 39, has become one of the richest people in Hungary, according to local media, but he denies his rise is linked to his relationship with Orbán and told the Financial Times that he has withdrawn from public tenders following the Elios affair. Last year, Orbán said that criticism of his associates is a normal part of politics.
" I am untouchable, as I do not deal with business matters and have never done so. They attack… my son-in-law. This is inevitable. I consider it a necessary consequence of democracy and the existence of the opposition ," he told the öt.hu portal.
OLAF officials have said cooperation with the Hungarian prosecution has improved since the signing of a joint working agreement in 2022. Last year, long-serving prosecutor general Péter Polt was appointed president of Hungary’s Constitutional Court. The anti-fraud body stressed that the figures given to the Financial Times were preliminary and could increase in the future.
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