Armed police in Budapest arrested a 27-year-old man on May 6 in connection with an alleged credit‑card fraud that investigators say used Johnny Depp's American Express details in hundreds of unauthorised transactions; a court has placed the suspect in pre‑trial detention.
Authorities say the probe uncovered 308 separate transactions carried out between January 2024 and December 2025, examined as amounting to more than £536,000. Investigators additionally reported that the attempted frauds on online platforms totalled $721,415 and that most of the disputed spending was routed through an international accommodation brokerage website.
The investigation began when a high‑profile US bank client was flagged for suspicious withdrawals and the bank alerted the Hungarian branch of the FBI earlier this year. Investigators traced those transactions to a rented flat in Budapest and, using digital forensics, mapped IP addresses, email accounts and a Hungarian phone number to activity linked to the payments.
The emergency police unit arrested the suspect at an apartment on Gömb Street in the 13th district of Angyalföld. During the search, police recovered electronic devices that authorities say were used in the alleged scheme. Officials said they were able to determine which IP addresses were used to buy services and which email addresses were employed in the alleged crimes.
Authorities say the card details were used primarily for online purchases and accommodation bookings. The pattern, investigators say, was consistent over almost two years — from January 2024 through December 2025 — and appears to have gone unnoticed until the bank’s internal controls flagged the activity as irregular.
The suspect denies the accusations, a denial that stands even after a court ordered pre‑trial detention. Prosecutors argued to the court that detention was necessary while digital traces are followed and devices examined; the court agreed and remanded the man pending further legal steps.
Investigators have emphasised that while the transactions trace back to the rented flat and the recovered electronics, they have not yet established how Johnny Depp’s card details were obtained. Depp has previously spent time in Budapest while filming Modì, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, but authorities have not linked his movements to the leak of payment data and have not disclosed a route by which the details might have been exposed.
The case hinges on digital evidence and cross‑border finance records. A US bank’s alert put investigators on the trail, and Hungarian detectives say they reconstructed a chain of online activity connecting the payments to the Budapest address. Officials also noted that most of the disputed funds were spent through a single international accommodation brokerage site, which investigators are now querying for account records and access logs.
For now the prosecution’s position rests on the forensic links between the transactions, the Budapest flat and the recovered devices; the defence rests on the suspect’s denial and the absence, at this stage, of a demonstrated pathway showing how the card details were obtained. That gap — who first accessed or copied the payment details and how they moved from that point into an alleged criminal network — remains the central unresolved question in the inquiry.
Investigators said further arrests have not been ruled out and that the probe remains active as they follow leads abroad and analyse the seized electronics. The suspect is in custody during the evidence‑gathering phase; prosecutors will need to present additional forensic and financial proof if they are to convert the current charges into a full criminal case. Until then, the immediate next steps are clear: authorities must identify the origin of the leak and determine whether the Budapest arrest is the end of the chain or only the first step in a wider cross‑border fraud investigation.
