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Hungary’s former central bank governor Gyorgy Matolcsy has been detained in connection with a corruption investigation that has allegedly cost public funds around half a billion euros, his lawyer told local media on Wednesday.
Matolcsy, 71, who headed the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) from 2013 to 2025, was taken into custody as part of an investigation into the management of central bank assets, his lawyer, Pal Batki, told news outlet Telex.
Batki said Matolcsy was suspected of economic fraud causing significant financial losses and using a forged private document.
“My client is suspected of the criminal offence of economic fraud causing significant financial loss and misdemeanour of using a forged private document,” Batki said.
Prosecutors said earlier Wednesday they were “carrying out coordinated investigative operations as part of an ongoing investigation into the offence of embezzlement causing particularly significant financial loss”.
They said further details would be released after initial investigative measures were completed.
The case centres on foundations established by the central bank under Matolcsy’s leadership and the management of their assets.
Hungary’s State Audit Office found last year that assets had effectively disappeared from the foundations through a series of investment and real-estate transactions.
Investigative outlet Direkt36 and other Hungarian media have reported that companies and business interests linked to Matolcsy’s son, Adam, benefited from some of the transactions.
Local media have estimated that around 200 billion forints (about 550 million euros) may have been lost through property deals connected to the central bank foundations.
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According to Telex, several other people were also detained, including a lawyer and the owner of a construction company reportedly involved in renovating a luxury villa on the Greek island of Mykonos linked to Matolcsy’s son, Adam.
Matolcsy was a key architect of former prime minister Viktor Orban’s economic policies. Orban once described him as his “right-hand” man, although their relationship reportedly deteriorated in recent years as scrutiny of the former central bank governor heightened.
Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who defeated Orban in the April election on an anti-corruption platform, had repeatedly criticised prosecutors over the pace of the investigation, which began last year.
