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Huge respirator scandal in Poland: Arms dealers, secret service and prime minister involved
Corona Investigative Committee in Berlin, writes via their 2020News.de site.
2020news.de
Corona Investigative Committee in Berlin, writes via their 2020News.de site.
Riesenskandal um Beatmungsgeräte in Polen: Waffenschieber, Geheimdienst und Premier beteiligt - 2020 NEWS
In Polen scheinen Teile der Regierung, der Geheimdienst und ein Waffenschieber an einem korrupten Deal über Beamtmungsgeräte in Höhe von umgerechnet € 43 Millionen zusammengewirkt zu haben. Der abgetauchte Waffenschmuggler wird nun per Haftbefehl gesucht. Am 14. April 2020 traf der damalige...
2020news.de
DeepL translation
In Poland, parts of the government, the secret service and a gunrunner appear to have colluded in a corrupt deal involving the equivalent of €43 million worth of official respirators. The absconded arms smuggler is now wanted on an arrest warrant.
On 14 April 2020, the then Deputy Minister of Health Janusz Cieszynski made a momentous decision: bypassing all procedures, without vetting the contractor and without consultations, Cieszyński signed a contract with Andrzej Izdebski, the president of E&K, a company previously known for its arms trade.
The agreement was for the purchase of 1241 ventilators. On the same day, Izdebski received a transfer from the Ministry of Health amounting to 154 million zloty (equivalent to about € 33 million). This was supposed to be an advance payment on the 200 million zloty (approx. € 43 million) provided for in the contract.
However, the E&K company, whose boss had previously traded with North Korea, among others, and had been involved in business with the Italian and Albanian mafias and in arms smuggling to countries under UN embargo, did not have the ventilators it had promised the Polish government at all. The devices were unsuitable and completely overpriced. As the NIK report later revealed, the health minister Cieszynski had been persuaded by the secret service to sign the contract with E&K boss Izdebski.
Meanwhile, it became known: Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki knew and approved that Izdebski, despite being the owner of a small arms trading company, was to become the supplier of the respirators. This was revealed in emails recently published online. The same correspondence shows that Izdebski, who has since disappeared and is wanted on an arrest warrant, was recommended as a reliable contractor by the chairman of the copper group Marcin Chludziński. Neither the Prime Minister's Office nor the copper group responded to tvn24.pl's questions.
For two days now, the portal that published the officials' emails cannot be opened in web browsers with default settings. As journalists from a trusted third party, the industry service Zaufana Trzecia Strona, have learned, the blockade stems from an order by the head of the Internal Security Agency, Colonel Krzysztof Wacławek. Citing Article 180 of the Telecommunications Act, he ordered ISPs to block the portal. As journalists from Trusted Third Party report, the publications constitute a "threat to defence, state security and public order" according to the Internal Security Agency.
While the government has questioned the veracity of the published emails, it has not yet provided a single example of a false email. Instead, there are at least several emails whose truthfulness has been confirmed by people mentioned by name in the correspondence.
The scandal is spreading further. When the Polish internet television station wRealu24 reports on the matter, it is blocked. Marcin Rola, the station's editor-in-chief, explains: "I learned from unofficial sources that we were blocked for reporting on the "breathing apparatus scandal"."
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