Hungary robbed $82 million from Ukraine’s state bank, now it has fabricated subtitles on a toilet-office joke video to justify it

Ukraine's Oschadbank accused Hungary on 8 April of fabricating the video evidence it published to justify keeping $82 million in cash and gold seized from the bank's couriers a month earlier. Earlier the same day, Hungary's National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) published a statement claiming the video shows a courier crew printing forged documents in a gas station restroom and talking about "corruption money." Oschadbank shared an unprocessed copy of the same recording to show both claims are false — and that NAV degraded the original audio before publishing.

What Hungary claimed

NAV claimed investigators found the background of the cash transport "unclear" and that the origin and use of the seized assets "may raise suspicion of a criminal offense." As alleged supporting evidence, NAV published the video, claiming it shows a former Ukrainian intelligence major general — who NAV claimed supervised the shipments — allegedly forging documents in a gas station restroom, while his companions talk about "corruption money."

It also stated the banknotes were freshly printed and had not been in circulation — a detail it presented as suspicious — and said a Polish and a Gibraltar bank were involved alongside Oschadbank. The agency said it had requested European Investigation Orders to Austria and Poland.

What Oschadbank proves

Meanwhile, Oschadbank called the video fabricated and published a side-by-side transcript comparison between NAV's subtitled version and the actual audio, taken from an unprocessed copy of the same recording made on a second phone.

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Oschadbank also contested NAV's description of the location and activity. The video was recorded on 10 March 2025 — a year before the robbery — on a parking lot near Vienna, not at a gas station, the bank said. The couriers were printing routine customs documents because the vehicle's power inverter had broken, forcing them to find an external power source. The documents printed — including "a CMR, packing list, invoice, and ticket" — are confirmed by customs stamps from both Hungary and Ukraine, Oschadbank said. The bank's armored vehicles are equipped with a mobile office including a laptop and printer for exactly this purpose.

Oschadbank also noted that freshly printed, uncirculated banknotes are entirely consistent with its legitimate cash supply operations under an international agreement with Raiffeisen Bank Austria, the same agreement that governs every convoy on this route.

As for the phone from which NAV obtained the video, Oschadbank said its seizure and the access to its contents were illegal: NAV had not answered requests for the legal basis of retaining personal property belonging to employees who were questioned only as witnesses.

The comparison shows the phrase "corruption money" does not appear anywhere in the actual audio. What the couriers actually said, as transcribed by Oschadbank:

"Shoot from the side. You can clearly see what you're doing. Now I need to film this whole office. Not from above, so the amounts are visible. Why are you filming secrets? Hey Vovan, step aside — now you'll see the urinals too. And all this..."

NAV's Hungarian subtitles rendered this as: 

"Shoot from the side. So you can see the... corruption money. Coughing, loud laughter, inaudible speech. Now I'll film our whole office. Not from above, because the amounts are visible. Why are you filming secrets? Ivan, step aside because now the urinals and all this will be visible."

The key fabrication: NAV inserted "corruption money" where the actual audio contains no such phrase.

Hungarian-style robbery

Hungary's de facto robbery of the Oschadbank convoy took place on 5 March, when the Counter-Terrorism Center intercepted two armored vehicles on a routine Vienna-to-Kyiv run, detained all seven couriers, and seized $40 million, €35 million, and 9 kg of gold. The couriers were expelled from Hungary after 28 hours in handcuffs the next day. 

The cash and gold remain in Hungary to this day.

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Hungary's Construction and Transport Minister János Lázár confirmed the operation was deliberate and tied the seizure directly to Hungary's demand that Ukraine restore Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline — a pipeline Russia struck in a drone attack in January. 

The 60-day confiscation law that Hungary passed to retroactively legalize the seizure is currently running. Hungary's parliamentary election is scheduled for 12 April.

Oschadbank says it is pursuing legal action and has retained a leading international auditing firm to certify the legality of all transport procedures.