The US has sanctioned Antal Rogan, a close ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, for his alleged leading role in systemic public corruption in Hungary,   outgoing US Ambassador David Pressman informed local media at an extraordinary press conference on January 7.

The US Department of the Treasury sanctions come under Executive Order 13818, which implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. They block all assets of the 52-year-old minister under US jurisdiction and restrict transactions with US persons.

Rogan, one of the most influential members of the Orban cabinet, oversees Hungary’s intelligence agencies and government communication, and leads several government entities including the Digital Government Agency and the Hungarian Tourism Agency.

He is accused of orchestrating public procurement schemes that enriched himself and other party loyalists, diverting state resources and manipulating strategic sectors of Hungary's economy for personal gain, according to the statement.

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 EU suspended the transfer of €6.3bn in funding from cohesion funds to Hungary in December 2022 over concerns related to public procurements, conflict of interest and the fight against corruption.

Hungary became the first EU country to lose funding, €1bn in total, irretrievably under the ongoing "conditionality mechanism", and Budapest has been blocked from accessing €6.5bn in grants and €3.9bn in loans requested from the EU's Recovery and Resilience Facility for failing to meet other conditions set by the European Commission.

Hungary's chief prosecutor, Peter Polt, a former Fidesz MP, is widely accused of overlooking corruption scandals involving individuals closely connected to the ruling party.

At the press conference, Pressman told journalists that senior government officials in Hungary have long used positions of power to enrich themselves and their families. When corruption cases were exposed by journalists or NGOs, their efforts not only failed to prompt official action, but it spurred government-led attacks against them.

Washington has voiced concerns with senior government officials multiple times without any results. He added that the US rarely sanctions a sitting minister, especially from an allied country, but said the “US will act when its interests are harmed. Make no mistake, corruption in Hungary very much implicates the interests of the United States,” he stressed.

The action taken is a serious step to challenge the system of corruption in which many others are involved, he added.

Rogan's media megaphone would attempt to frame the decision as partisan or an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty, the ambassador added, but in reality, the opposite is true. "It is not the United States that threatens Hungary’s sovereignty, but the kleptocratic ecosystem managed and by Rogan."

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and Gergely Gulyas, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, called the sanctions a "petty revenge" by the outgoing Democratic administration.

Hungary's top diplomat accused Pressman of leaving Hungary "without honour" and expressed hope that the incoming US leadership would treat Hungary as a friend.

Gulyas added that the sanctions were retaliation for Hungary's support of incoming president Donald Trump.

Opposition leader Peter Magyar said the prosecution of Rogan is not the task of foreign powers but the responsibility of the Hungarian justice system, which at present operates under constant political pressure. Magyar repeated his call for an early election to put an end to the "Orban-Gyurcsany-Rogan" era.