Corona aid allegedly fraudulently dealt with today (9:30 a.m.) at the Munich I district court. A 31-year-old man is charged with unjustifiably applying for immediate corona aid in at least 91 cases – even in several federal states. It concerns cases in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Saarland, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hesse and Berlin. The native of Gelsenkirchen, who last lived in London, is said to have applied for more than 2.5 million euros with bogus identities. Almost 68,000 of these were paid out.
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Numerous other processes of this kind are likely to deal with national courts in the future, because the procedure is not an isolated case. “Criminals took advantage of the current emergency in order to enrich themselves financially,” said the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). The Federal Ministry of Economics does not have nationwide figures on this and refers to the federal states.
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At the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office alone, more than 1,400 suspected cases had become known by the end of 2020, including 1,120 cases of subsidy fraud in the case of Corona emergency aid and bridging aid as well as more than 300 cases of other fraud, for example in the case of artist aid.
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According to the Bavarian Ministry of Justice, the public prosecutor’s offices in Bavaria initiated at least 844 investigation and preliminary investigation proceedings in connection with applications for immediate corona aid from the federal and state governments. Around 5.5 million euros were paid out. In the case of applications with a total value of at least another 4.5 million euros, according to the ministry, there was also the suspicion of false information without any payment being made.
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The Munich I public prosecutor’s office, which is also conducting the process in the process that started on Monday, had received around 145 cases of subsidy fraud in connection with corona subsidy aid by the end of October 2020. “The number of procedures is likely to increase,” said a spokeswoman for the authority. “The investigations are still ongoing in many proceedings.”
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At the beginning of the Corona crisis, the investigators mainly tracked down the perpetrators when banks reported suspected money laundering due to suspicious transactions. In the meantime, it is mainly the payment offices such as the Bavarian capital, Munich, that report suspected cases.
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Bavaria’s Minister of Justice Georg Eisenreich (CSU) sees the Bavarian judiciary “very vigilant and well positioned” in the fight against fraud with immediate Corona aid. He emphasizes: “Fraud is not worth it. In addition to the obligation to repay the Corona emergency aid, there is a risk of high fines and imprisonment of up to five years.”
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A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Economics emphasizes that fraud with Corona aid is now much more difficult than at the beginning of the pandemic. The bridging aid, which followed the emergency aid from the spring, had to be applied for by a “third party” such as a lawyer, tax advisor or auditor. “The basic application via a so-called” checking third party “avoids abuse,” said the spokesman.
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