US imposes sanctions on senior Hungarian government minister
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US treasury accuses Antal Rogán, a close aide of leader Viktor Orbán, as key to ‘system of corruption’. The United States has imposed sanctions on a senior member of the Hungarian government for alleged corruption, in a move which Budapest said it would challenge as soon as Donald Trump takes office.
The US treasury accused Antal Rogán, a close aide of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of using his role to secure financial benefits for himself and his political allies. “Those closely connected to the ruling political party have acquired massive empires of holdings,” the US ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman, told a news conference. “Antal Rogán is a primary architect, implementer and beneficiary of this system of corruption.”.
The sanctions were passed under the Global Magnitsky Act, which bans sanctioned individuals from entering the US, prohibits US companies from doing business with them, and freezes their assets under US jurisdiction. Rogán, often referred to as Hungary’s “propaganda minister”, has been close to Orbán for decades, overseeing his vast media machine and election campaigns, which largely contributed to the Hungarian leader’s grip on power for four consecutive terms. He runs Orbán’s cabinet office and also oversees Hungary’s intelligence services.
According to the treasury’s statement the minister “orchestrated schemes designed to control several strategic sectors of the Hungarian economy and to divert proceeds from those sectors to himself and to reward loyalists from his political party”.
