Czech ministry lost 17.6 million crowns on drones from the US

In late 2023, the Czech Ministry of Defence transferred an advance of 17.6 million crowns to the Prague-based firm Summit Advanced Systems for ten American Osprey-H drones — the equipment was never delivered, and the money was dispersed to other accounts almost immediately. Military police spent four months investigating and closed the case, finding neither fraud nor anyone responsible.

A deal without a tender and without guarantees

The ministry signed the contract, worth 29.3 million crowns excluding VAT, at the end of 2023, during the tenure of ODS minister Jana Černochová — without a public tender, directly. The ministry justified this by saying the American Osprey-H drone, made by Easy Aerial, was a “unique product” and that Summit Advanced Systems was its sole supplier in Czechia. Other Czech businesspeople argued at the time that it was an ordinary device that could be supplied for far less.

The contract went to a small Prague firm with no experience in this kind of supply, which, as later emerged, was already heavily indebted and close to bankruptcy. The agreement was never entered into the register of contracts, so it escaped public scrutiny. The ministry also chose the largest of three possible options — a 50 percent advance — backed by neither a bank guarantee nor any other collateral.

Where the money disappeared in a single day

The advance landed in the transparent account of Doron Schultz’s firm on Friday, 22 December 2023 — a couple of days before Christmas. The same day, 14 million crowns left that account for the account of a non-bank payment institution, and about 3 million crowns went to the tax office as VAT. Within a few hours, the account, which had held 17.5 million crowns, was down to just over half a million.

From there the trail leads abroad: the manufacturer Easy Aerial itself received 291,800 dollars (about 6.5 million crowns), Georgian instructors received roughly 9,925 euros (a quarter of a million crowns), and a Lithuanian instructor received a further 174,000 crowns. The documents do not make clear how these payments relate to the drone delivery. The most questionable transfer of all was 536,000 crowns to Doron Schultz’s own personal account: he told police it covered employee salaries, while he himself, he said, was putting his own money into the firm. The businessman declined to comment — he does not answer calls.

Case closed, no one found responsible

Military police examined possible fraud and misappropriation of funds, but after four months concluded that the supplier — Summit Advanced Systems and its subsidiary Summit Defense — had acted in good faith and had tried to the last to fulfil the contract. The investigation attributed the failure to the manufacturer, Easy Aerial, which never shipped the equipment. The supervising prosecutor's office saw no conflict of interest in the fact that the military police, which was investigating the drone purchase, was procuring the drones for its own pyrotechnicians.

No Ministry of Defence employee was ever held accountable. Until 2022, both of Doron Schultz’s firms were headed by Tomáš Pojar — later national security adviser to Prime Minister Petr Fiala — who said he had left the company long before the contract was signed and had had no part in it.

A bankrupt drone and talks without a middleman

Both of Doron Schultz’s firms went bankrupt, and recovering the money will be extremely difficult: the ministry filed a claim for more than 70 million crowns in the bankruptcy proceedings, including penalties for failing to deliver the equipment. Summit Defense’s only asset turned out to be a wrecked drone, damaged back in 2020 during a demonstration for a client. “The drone is unusable,” the firm’s director, Jana Čopáková, told the insolvency administrator.

Of the 17.6 million crowns advanced, only 341,790 dollars (about 7.15 million crowns) ultimately reached the American manufacturer. In April 2026, the ministry, now headed by Jaromír Zůna of the SPD, contacted Easy Aerial directly, without a Czech intermediary. The manufacturer blamed the delays on the war in Ukraine, the situation in Israel, and long lead times for components. Czechia never received a single one of the ten drones it had ordered.

Source: seznamzpravy.cz