The United States on April 15 lifted sanctions imposed in January on the head of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's cabinet, Antal Rogan, over accusations of corruption and cronyism.
A statement posted on the Treasury Department website said Rogan had been deleted from the sanctions list, noting that continued designation was "inconsistent with US foreign policy interests."
Washington earlier this year announced sanctions against Rogan for alleged involvement in corruption, saying he had “used his role to enrich himself and those loyal to his party,” the department said in a news release on January 7.
Rogan “orchestrated schemes designed to control several strategic sectors of the Hungarian economy” and skimmed the proceeds from the sectors for himself and loyalists to the Fidesz party, the department said when it announced the sanctions.
He was designated under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption around the world.
The department noted in January that public sector corruption in Hungary has been worsening for more than a decade, leading to Hungary receiving the lowest score of any European Union member state on Transparency International’s 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index for the second consecutive year.
The US ambassador to Hungary at the time, David Pressman, said the “systemic corruption...is affecting Hungary's decision-making on issues that impact the security of the United States of America and our allies."
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