Hungary files a criminal complaint over US$965 million COVID-19 ventilator deal, citing possible fraud

Doctors and nurses wearing protective gears attend a patient on ventilator at the intensive care unit of Szent Laszlo Hospital treating COVID-19 patients during the pandemic of new coronavirus COVID-19 in Budapest, Hungary, on Dec. 13, 2021. (Zoltan Balogh/MTI via AP, File)

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary’s foreign ministry has filed a criminal complaint with prosecutors over what it says was possible fraud related to the previous government’s purchase of ventilators worth some US$965 million during the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Minister Anita Orbán said Tuesday.

Hungary’s previous government under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán purchased the roughly 17,000 ventilators from China in March and April 2020, drawing criticism at the time that it was buying far more units than could be realistically deployed and paying much more per unit than other European countries.

In a video posted to Facebook on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Orbán, who is not related to the former prime minister, said the results of a ministry investigation into the purchase “raises suspicions of breach of fiduciary duty causing particularly substantial financial loss and other criminal offenses.”

She didn’t detail specific allegations, but noted that the investigation involved tens of thousands of documents — some of which had to be recovered using digital tools “after unsuccessful attempts to delete them” — and raised further questions “about the responsibility of the ministry’s former senior leadership.”

A statement released on the Hungarian government’s website on Tuesday pointed to other suspected irregularities related to the ventilator procurement, including that most of the units were purchased through intermediary companies that saw their revenues rise exponentially due to the transaction.

Some of the ventilators were defective, and a significant proportion of them was never deployed, the statement reads, adding that storage costs for the unused devices ran into the millions of dollars.

Hungary’s former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó cultivated close ties with China during his nearly 12 years in office, and oversaw the purchase of the ventilators as well as the procurement of 5 million doses of the China-produced Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.

Last month, Szijjártó resigned his seat in Parliament to take an executive position with Chinese automaker BYD, prompting accusations of a conflict of interest due to his role in facilitating substantial government subsidies given to the company while in office.

Hungary’s government later launched an investigation into large investments into Hungary made by BYD during Szijjártó’s tenure.

Justin Spike, The Associated Press