Hungary’s anti-graft office said Monday afternoon that the person detained in a labor-hire case was questioned as a suspect for “inciting the felony of influence peddling.” The case is linked to Áron Orbán, younger brother of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. That morning the story had been people smuggling, and Prime Minister Péter Magyar had put Áron Orbán’s name to it.
The office has not explained the gap. Its morning release, issued jointly with the National Bureau of Investigation, announced “arrests and searches in a people-smuggling case,” according to MTI, the state news agency. Citing “press reports,” Magyar posted on Facebook that Áron Orbán had been held “on suspicion of people smuggling.” The first outlet to put Áron Orbán’s name to smuggling, at about 9 AM local time, was Kontroll, a site founded and published by the prime minister’s brother, Márton Magyar, according to Rapporteur, formerly Euractiv.
By the afternoon, the office was describing something narrower: one suspect, unnamed, questioned over influence peddling and not charged.
What the Office Said.
The National Office for Asset Recovery and Protection (NVVH) says the suspect invoked political connections, through a middleman, to ask the boss of a labor-hire firm for an unlawful advantage. In return, the firm was promised a way back onto the government’s register of priority employers, 24.hu reported.
The statement does not name Áron Orbán. HVG reported that the description fits his case. The office says it will release nothing more for now, citing the investigation.
The morning release said the two agencies were acting in “two ongoing criminal proceedings.” It did not say whether those are separate offenses, or whether the afternoon statement covers one of them or relabels both. Several people were apprehended in Budapest and at two locations in Pest County, and the homes of those under investigation were searched. Counterterrorism Center agents went to a property in Fótliget connected to a company owned by Áron Orbán, according to Telex. Anna Unger, who heads the NVVH, would neither confirm nor deny the raid, saying only that the office had “carried out additional activities” in the Áron Orbán case.
‘I’m the Target.’
Viktor Orbán called it a witch hunt aimed at him. “I’m the target here; my brother is merely a means to an end,” he wrote on Facebook, in Telex’s translation, likening the authorities to the ÁVH, Hungary’s communist-era secret police.
He cast the operation as cover for the Magyar government’s own “agent files” scandal. “Today, the government should be called to account before the National Security Committee for the scandal surrounding the agent files. The current witch hunt is just a tool for diverting attention,” he wrote. “What’s happening in Hungary isn’t accountability — it’s reckoning. Whenever things get uncomfortable for the government, the ÁVH steps in. In this dirty game, the goal is to eliminate political opponents and establish a one-party system.”
The Visa Business.
The case has a history. Telex has reported since May 2025 that Áron Orbán’s associates were allegedly dealing in guest worker visas. That reporting began with a leaked recording of Áron Orbán talking with Dávid Héjj, an aide to Viktor Orbán in the Prime Minister’s Office, in which some of the group’s visa applications were described as blocked by the authorities.
Two associates were arrested shortly after April’s election. One of them, identified only as G.B., was recently released. A Vietnamese interpreter in Budapest who knew the visa business has given a statement to the National Bureau of Investigation and met Áron Orbán twice, according to Telex.
