Human trafficking and corruption: four people arrested in Budapest, Fót and Dunaújváros
Four suspects were taken into custody on Monday morning in a human trafficking and corruption case, in connection with which the name of Áron Orbán, the brother of Viktor Orbán, has also emerged.
Four arrests in human trafficking case – Viktor Orbán's brother also implicated
On Monday morning, police took four people into custody in Budapest, Fót and Dunaújváros in connection with an investigation into human trafficking and corruption, according to Telex. In a joint operation by the National Investigation Bureau (NNI) and the National Asset and Property Protection Authority (NVVH), a man and woman in a civil partnership, along with two alleged accomplices, were brought in. At two locations, units of the Counter-Terrorism Centre (TEK) carried out the arrests, as authorities expected weapons to be present in the flats.
According to the investigation, the four suspects assisted Vietnamese citizens in transiting through Hungary to Western Europe over several months during 2024. The authorities state that the group cooperated in submitting visa applications at Hungarian diplomatic representations, for which they collected so-called "recruitment fees" that they then shared. Based on available data, they may have assisted more than a hundred Vietnamese citizens.
People arriving from Vietnam received short-stay Hungarian visas, formally for the purpose of participating in training programmes. According to police, however, most of them did not appear at the designated training at all, and those who did participate did not leave the country within the prescribed timeframe. The investigators' assessment is that everyone wanted to reach Western Europe in hopes of a better life, and the suspects assisted them in doing so.
During searches lasting several hours at four different locations, police seized documents, electronic data and other evidence. The NNI is investigating the three men and the woman on suspicion of human trafficking committed for material gain within a criminal organisation; the NVVH is pursuing proceedings against one of them for influence peddling committed as an instigator. Questioning and investigative actions are ongoing, and authorities are planning to apply personal liberty-restricting coercive measures against all four suspects. The operation was carried out with support from Europol.
In the case – as Telex has previously reported – the name of Áron Orbán, the brother of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has also emerged. The NVVH is also pursuing proceedings linked to his name in a matter of influence peddling in connection with Hungarian visas issued to Vietnamese citizens. However, the police announcement did not name the individuals arrested on Monday, so it remains unclear for the time being whether Áron Orbán is among those in custody.
Anna Unger, the head of the NVVH, neither confirmed nor denied information obtained by Telex: on Monday morning, TEK agents appeared at a property in Fótliget, which is connected to a company owned by Áron Orbán. Unger said only that the NVVH performed "further activities" on Monday morning in connection with the matter involving Áron Orbán, and promised to provide further information later.
Telex first reported on Áron Orbán and his business partners in May 2025 in an article titled "You're doing business with the prime minister's brother, the executive. So you know what that means." The publication began investigating the background of the matter following a leaked audio recording: in the recording, Áron Orbán speaks with Dávid Héjj, one of Viktor Orbán's staff members at the Prime Minister's Office. The audio revealed that Áron Orbán and his business partners took on a role in obtaining visas for guest workers, though some of their applications were blocked by authorities.
Source: Telex