The two men were accused of passing Hungarian defense strategies to an American in Budapest | Szilard Koszticsak/EPA Hungarian court finds pair not guilty of spying for US and IMF Businessmen were accused of handing sensitive information to the Pentagon and International Monetary Fund.

BUDAPEST — A military court ruled Wednesday that two businessmen charged with spying against Hungary for the Pentagon and International Monetary Fund were innocent.

Hungarian citizens Norbert Maxin and Bela Bukta were arrested in 2015 and charged with providing a copy of Hungary’s strategic defense plan to an American official in Budapest, as well as handing over damaging material to an IMF official.

“It was all made up,” Maxin told POLITICO ahead of the ruling.

Maxin was once a successful entrepreneur, doing business with large Hungarian and foreign corporations. He also owned a consulting firm that helped Hungarian academics raise funds for their research — including from the U.S. government’s Office for Defense Cooperation.

The accusations against Maxin and his then-employee Bukta came at a tense time in U.S.-Hungary relations: In late 2014, the U.S. government imposed visa bans on six Hungarians, including the head of the tax authority, over corruption allegations.

“They put me in the worst place in jail … they kept calling me in and trying to get me to confess,” said Maxin, who spent eight months in custody. If found guilty, the men could have faced about five years in prison.

While Maxin and Bukta were released from detention during the legal proceedings, they said their lives were put on hold as they awaited a verdict. Both were branded spies and Bukta said he had been unable to get a job.

The Hungarian government did not respond to a request for comment.

The prosecution’s main piece of evidence against Maxin and Bukta was an external drive found in Bukta’s home containing a file with the Hungarian defense plan. Their lawyers argued that the police mishandled evidence and tampered with the external drive.

While the judge did not agree with the argument that the external drive had been manipulated, the court ruled that Maxin and Bukta’s activities did not constitute spying.

“This is the world’s first IMF espionage case … which means the [Hungarian] authorities regard the IMF as a spy agency,” said Maxin, adding that it was odd to be accused of sharing defense acquisition plans with a NATO ally. “It would have been completely unnecessary for the Americans to ask us to steal something which they can ask the Hungarian state for anytime. It’s ridiculous.”