Overview
- The Foreign Ministry delivered roughly 88 gigabytes of recovered files to prosecutors and formally reported suspected fraud and other crimes tied to ventilator purchases made under the previous government.
- The procurement involved nearly 17,000 ventilators bought for about 300 billion forints, which the ministry says were often bought from Hungarian intermediaries at prices far above factory cost.
- An internal audit recovered only a partial record and the ministry says some documents had to be restored with digital tools after apparent deletion, complicating the reconstruction of decisions.
- Most of the machines remain in warehouses and the ministry says the number of ventilators far exceeded the available intensive care staff and beds needed to operate them, creating questions about practicality and extra storage costs.
- Prosecutors now hold the materials and may open criminal investigations, while the case raises political and legal exposure for figures in the prior administration and relevant vendors; Fidesz press officials had no immediate response.