Some 500,000 checks carried out since the start of the crisis have detected short-time work fraud involving some 200 million euros, but most of these sums have been recovered, said Labor Minister Élisabeth Borne on Wednesday.
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“
We are monitoring, of course: it's public money, it's everyone's money.
We are vigilant, so that there is no fraud or scams,
”explained Elisabeth Borne on LCI.
“
We carried out nearly 500,000 checks.
I can assure you that 70% of the sums which were the subject of suspicion were blocked from the start, and we were able to recover 80% of the money that had been unduly paid,
”added the Minister.
“
The orders of magnitude, it is 200 million euros which had been the subject of suspicion of fraud - in this case one blocks the payments.
And there must be around twenty million that we have not yet recovered,
”said Elisabeth Borne.
These frauds are in particular the fact of "
crooks who wanted to usurp the identity of companies to be able to benefit from partial activity
", she explained.
Last summer, the Paris prosecutor's office opened an investigation into massive fraud attempts on short-time work, emanating from a network of crooks with international ramifications.
These crooks would have tried to embezzle 182 million euros in total.
But the abuses also include more traditional and smaller-scale frauds, involving companies with a more traditional profile.
In total, nearly nine million employees saw their compensation covered by the State during the first confinement in spring 2020, then three million during the second confinement in November, recalled Elisabeth Borne.
