El Salvador’s Payments for Faulty or Undelivered Masks Leaves Sprawling International Paper Trail

<p>Senior Salvadoran officials discarded internal warnings even as they recommended international mask suppliers suspected of fraud. As a result, ten separate government offices signed contracts worth millions of dollars. Much of the product never arrived; the rest failed to meet medical-grade standards. The Czech intermediary who represented both companies denies ever having done business with the government of El Salvador. Meanwhile, the public funds, as well as the promised masks, are nowhere to be found.</p>

Jimmy Alvarado