On 21 October 2026, Hungary’s Central Investigative Chief Prosecutor’s Office detained György Matolcsy, the former governor of the Hungarian National Bank (MNB). The 71-year-old politician and economist, a close ally of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, was taken into custody early in the morning along with several other individuals.
According to his lawyer, Pál Bátki, Matolcsy is suspected of committing economic fraud that caused significant (in the prosecution’s wording, particularly significant) financial damage, as well as of using a forged private document. Matolcsy himself has previously denied any wrongdoing.
The investigation concerns the so-called “MNB case.” In 2014, under Matolcsy’s leadership, the National Bank established the Pallas Athéné foundations, to which more than HUF 266 billion (hundreds of millions of euros) from the bank’s foreign-exchange gains was transferred. Asset management was handled by the company Optima. The foundations later merged into PADME.
According to investigators, on 28 February 2025 — one of Matolcsy’s last working days as central bank governor — a simulated securities loan agreement was concluded between Optima and a private investment fund. Its real purpose, the prosecution claims, was to transfer control over PADME’s assets (a portfolio valued at roughly HUF 200 billion) to a circle of people over whom Matolcsy could still exert influence after the end of his mandate, for the benefit of himself and his son Ádám.
The State Audit Office (ÁSZ) had already published critical reports on the foundations’ operations in March 2025 and pointed to substantial asset losses. The bank’s new leadership also filed complaints with law-enforcement authorities.
The prosecution confirmed that coordinated investigative actions were carried out, searches were conducted at several locations, and evidence was seized. In addition to Matolcsy, the representative of the private fund who participated in the transaction and the lawyer involved in the securities deal were also detained. International arrest warrants were requested for two further persons.
After a multi-hour interrogation, Matolcsy refused to give testimony on the substance of the case. The prosecution requested his pre-trial detention. The decision will be made by an investigative judge. The lawyer has appealed the detention.
Matolcsy served as economy minister in Orbán’s government from 2010 to 2013 and headed the National Bank from 2013 to 2025. The detention takes place against the backdrop of large-scale anti-corruption investigations following Orbán’s defeat in the April 2026 parliamentary elections and the formation of a government led by Péter Magyar. Matolcsy is one of the highest-ranking figures from the Orbán era to have been taken into custody.
