Hungarian media outlet reveals possible role of intelligence services in detention of Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards

Hungarian news portal Telex has learned the alleged role of Hungarian intelligence services in the detention of cash-in-transit guards from Ukraine's Oschadbank in Hungary in March 2026.

Source: a 27 August article by Telex based on conversations with sources, as reported by European Pravda

Details: A report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which prompted the authorities to act, was supposedly based not on its own intelligence but on information from the Information Office, Hungary's foreign intelligence service. The two are separate intelligence agencies: the former focuses on counter-terrorism and domestic security, while the latter handles foreign intelligence. However, under Viktor Orbán, both were overseen by his close ally Antal Rogán.

According to one version of events, the Information Office was less interested in the fact that cash was being transported to Ukraine through Hungary than in the presence in the convoy of Hennadii Kuznietsov, a former senior official in the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU). After learning that Kuznietsov had entered Hungary several times, the authorities began monitoring him more closely.

Hungarian intelligence officials supposedly suspected that Kuznietsov had not been assigned such tasks by chance. They considered him close to Andrii Yermak, former head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, and also took note of a court ruling against him in Ukraine dating back to 2011.

Suspicion was reportedly also raised by the fact that cash was regularly transported not only to Ukraine but also from Ukraine to Europe, which the Ukrainian side partly explained by the transportation of damaged banknotes. Officials also noted that Hungarian police escorts had been requested only a few times for the convoys, as Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards travel unarmed abroad. In any case, Hungarian officials began to suspect that there were issues, focusing on Kuznietsov.

The government decided that the information collected by the Information Office was sufficient to take action.

Sources interviewed by Telex offered different explanations as to why the counterintelligence service, rather than the Information Office, had provided the information that triggered the operation. One explanation was that officials did not want to expose the foreign intelligence service's role. Another version was that the Information Office did not want to take responsibility for the case because it knew that the grounds for the money-laundering allegations were very weak.

Some sources claim that officials at the Information Office were later very dissatisfied with the raid because it disrupted their own plans concerning Kuznietsov.

Background:

• In mid-August, Hungary's National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) closed criminal proceedings against Ukrainian cash-in-transit officers who were detained on suspicion of money laundering, citing the absence of a criminal offence.
• Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced an investigation into the actions of certain Hungarian authorities in connection with the seizure of Ukrainian cash-in-transit officers and Oschadbank funds in March 2026.

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