The National Tax and Customs Office (NAV) of Hungary has decided to archive the investigation for money laundering against seven employees of the Ukrainian bank Oschadbank due to lack of evidence. These workers were detained last March while crossing Hungarian territory after leaving the headquarters of Raiffeisen Bank Austria in Vienna, where they had withdrawn 40 million dollars (about 35 million euros) and nine kilos of gold.
According to NAV itself, all those funds and precious metals —which were delivered to Ukraine just before the swearing-in of the new Hungarian Prime Minister, Péter Magyar— were extracted within the framework of a banking operation formalized between both entities, which provided the necessary documentation to prove the legality of the origin of the assets.
The legal representative of Oschadbank, Lóránt Horváth, has emphasized in a brief message posted on his social networks that the investigations have found no evidence of criminal activity. "There was no money laundering!" he celebrated.
The temporary detention of these employees and the initial seizure of the money and gold added tension to the already complicated relationship between Ukraine and Hungary, marked by their disagreements regarding the Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
The episode took place in a context in which Ukraine had blocked the transit of Russian crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline, the main oil supply channel for Hungary and Slovakia, citing the need to repair damage to the infrastructure caused by Russian attacks.
The government then led by Viktor Orbán conditioned the return of the goods on Kiev lifting that blockade, as several senior officials admitted. Finally, the intervention of the European Union and, in particular, Magyar's victory in the legislative elections allowed the situation to be unblocked.