Jan Obrman

Obrman was born in 1961 in Prague, in socialist Czechoslovakia. His family left the country, going first to Switzerland and then to Germany. Later, Obrman lived for years in the United States and Canada. He has degrees in history and political science. For a while he worked for Radio Free Europe as an analyst of Central European politics, economy and defense. In 1989, he moved back to Prague to help launch RFE in the city. Later he went into the television business and became entangled in one of the most complex ownership battles in Czech media. Obrman went on to work in the defense industry. According to New York Times reporter Mark Mazzetti’s book, Obrman’s Prague-based company, U-Turn, produced a computer and mobile game for the Pentagon. The game was aimed at the Middle East and it had two goals: to spread pro-American messages to Iraqi youth and to gather information about those who downloaded the game. In 2012 a new defense company called European Air Services (EAS) was founded in Prague. Its main business activity is the sale of American MD helicopters in the European market. According to Czech business registries, just after the company was founded Jan Obrman became co-owner with an investment of 100,000 Czech crowns. Obrman was also named CEU of the company on the day it was founded. He also became a face of the company, appearing in a 2013 EAS ad where he discusses the advantages of MD helicopters. Five helicopters for three times their original price European Air Services sold five MD helicopters to Hungary in 2016. At the time, Obrman was the CEO of the company. That year the German state of Baden-Württemberg sold five fifteen year old MD902 helicopters. According to a statement the helicopters were sold for 4.8 million euros. The same five helicopters were bought by the Hungarian National Police Headquarters from EAS for 13.2 million euros. That is a selling price of 8.4 million euros more than the price EAS paid for them. This was quite the scandal in Hungary at the time. The press covered the fact that the price of the helicopters practically tripled by the time EAS sold the equipment to the Hungarian police. The police said that the price hike is explained by the fact that EAS not only sold the helicopters to them but also heat cameras, as well as complete hardware and software systems supporting the helicopters. They also sold tools for maintenance, service equipment and spare parts and the helicopters arrived completely restored and re-painted. According to press reports later confirmed by the Hungarian ministry of the interior, there was an intermediary company that helped the police and EAS to strike the deal. It is a Hungarian company called Aerotechnika M&T Zrt. The owner of this company, Miklós Takács also provided an explanation for the price hike. He told news magazine HVG that besides the helicopters the contract included police equipment, ground service equipment and training as well. The story has political aspects worth pointing out. EAS was bought by one of the subsidiaries of the defense industry giant Czechoslovak Group (CSG). CSG is heavily involved in Czech politics as a financial supporter of Milos Zeman. Czech President Zeman has a good relationship with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Zeman is also a fan of Vladimir Putin and he once joked about shooting journalists. The chair of CSG, Michael Strnad, is a close political ally of Zeman. OCCRP recently discovered that Strnad has been secretly buying up Balkan arms for several years. CSG also paid for former Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s May 2018 trip to Prague. Obrman was not far from the scene, either. A photo of the event shows Strnad and Obrman side by side welcoming Bannon to Prague. IDAG’s new man worked closely with the Hungarian government The name of Miklós Takács and his company, Aerotechnika M&T Zrt., an official NATO supplier, popped up elsewhere as well. International Defense & Aerospace Group (IDAG) and Aerotechnika M&T Zrt. co-founded a company in August 2016. The name of the company is Aero-Idag Kft. The founding of the new company was covered by website vg.hu at the time. The news piece said that the new company might have something to do with the intention of the Hungarian military to buy new aircraft. It seems this did not materialize, though as Aero-Idag Kft. had no income in either 2016 or 2017. In March 2018, Aerotechnika M&T left Aero-Idag, leaving the American company IDAG as the sole owner of the Hungarian Aero-Idag. However, in March 2018 a new manager, Zoltán Ozoli, was registered at Aero-Idag. Ozoli has close ties to the Hungarian government, having worked for several branches, including the military and the police. At a recent conference about drone technology he took part as a representative of IDAG. According to his introduction, he has been working as a drone operator trainer for the Hungarian military, the police and the border guard since 2014. Three months after Ozoli joined Aero-Idag he co-founded a company with Fly-Coop, the company mentioned above and favored by Fidesz politicians. To summarize: – at the beginning of 2016 EAS sold 5 helicopters to the Hungarian police for a price generally considered excessive – Hungarian company Aerotecnnika served as an intermediary in the deal – in the summer of 2016 Aerotechnika co-founded a company with US company IDAG – in 2017 the police bought 6 helicopters from IDAG – in November 2017 EAS’s Jan Obrman became a member of IDAG – in 2018 IDAG’s Hungarian subsidiary co-founds a company with the government’s favored flight operator, Fly-Coop The new company of IDAG and Fly-Coop has not shown any activity so far, but it is worth keeping an eye on. In August 2018, IDAG lost a public tender contracting a new maintenance company for the police’s helicopters, but we have to see whether the new subsidiary will be more successful. https://english.atlatszo.hu/2018/09/17/american-and-czech-defense-companies-with-ties-to-government-profit-from-hungarian-police-contracts/