Authorities in Budapest have arrested a 27-year-old Jordanian man in an alleged fraud investigation tied to Johnny Depp, after police connected hundreds of online transactions to the actor’s American Express card details. The man was taken into custody on May 6, and a court later ordered his detention.
Investigators say Depp allegedly lost about $721,000 after his card information was used in 308 cases worth $721,415 over roughly two years, with the transactions running from January 2024 through December 2025. Police said they tracked the activity through online booking records, IP addresses and phone data linked to a rented apartment in the Hungarian capital.
An American financial institution reportedly alerted the Hungarian branch of the FBI after detecting illegal withdrawals tied to a high-profile client account. That complaint helped investigators trace the activity to Hungary through banking records, and police said the majority of the disputed purchases were made on an international accommodation website, with other services also paid for using the obtained data.
The size of the alleged loss sits awkwardly beside Depp’s long-running earning power. Public reports have put his film income at more than $650 million between 1999 and 2016, a figure that does not change the allegation at the center of this case but does frame why the sum drew attention. The point for investigators is not his past box-office haul. It is the trail of card use they say led from online platforms to a single apartment in Budapest.
Police searched the Gömb Street apartment in Budapest’s 13th district, where they said they recovered electronic devices allegedly used in the fraud. Officers also found suspected drug residue inside the property, and the suspect was questioned over fraud committed using an information system and possession of drugs. Hungarian police said the inquiry remains active, data recovery from the seized devices is still under way, and further arrests have not been ruled out.
What remains unresolved is the simplest question in the case: whether any of the allegedly stolen money has been recovered. Until police finish extracting data from the devices and complete the wider inquiry, the full scope of the alleged scheme may still widen.
