Hungary has recovered and returned less than a fifth of EU funds flagged for potential fraud over the past decade, according to data from the bloc’s anti-fraud watchdog reported by the Financial Times. 

Citing information shared by the EU anti-corruption watchdog Olaf, the newspaper said that Hungary handed back €250.6 million, or 18 percent, of the €1.39 billion Olaf said should be repaid to the EU budget because of allegedly fraudulent processes between 2015 and 2024. By comparison, the rest of the EU recovered 71 percent of funds flagged by Olaf, or €5.15 billion out of €7.22 billion 

Although Hungary received a yearly average of about 2.9 percent of total EU spending over that period, it accounted for 16 percent of all EU funds Olaf said were potentially affected by fraud, the report said. The disparity was partly explained by a structural loophole: Olaf can investigate misuse of EU funds, but only national authorities or the European Public Prosecutor’s Office can bring prosecutions and recover money, and Hungary has not joined the EPPO. 

Olaf launched 87 investigations involving Hungary between 2015 and 2024 and recommended judicial proceedings in 52 cases, the FT reported. Hungarian authorities issued indictments in only 17 of those cases. In customs fraud alone, Olaf told Hungarian customs to recover €285 million in evaded duties over the period, but only about €633,000 was seized, according to the report. 

The FT also pointed to a prominent case involving Orbán’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz. Olaf concluded in 2017 that Tiborcz’s company, Elios Innovatív, had won municipal lighting tenders through fraudulent processes designed to exclude competition and ordered €43.7 million to be repaid, but Hungarian authorities ultimately dropped the case. Tiborcz told the FT last year the recommendation was politically motivated and said prosecutors had twice found no wrongdoing. 

The issue of EU-linked fraud has been costly for Budapest, according to the FT. The bloc froze €27 billion earmarked for the Hungary in 2022 after concluding political connections were often “decisive” in winning state contracts.

Read more at the Financial Times