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Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) at the autumn retreat of the CSU parliamentary group (archive)
Photo: Sven Hoppe / picture alliance / dpa
Because fraudsters are said to have sneaked millions of euros in corona aid using false identities, the federal government apparently stopped several corona aid programs at the end of last week.
This is reported by the business magazine "Business Insider" with reference to government circles.
November and December aid as well as bridging aid I to III are affected.
According to information from the medium, strangers with false identities have registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs as third parties and then applied for help for real companies.
However, the money did not flow there, but into the accounts of the fraudsters.
Apparently, the scam was not noticed by either the federal government or the states, which are supposed to regularly review the applications, until last week.
Suspicion of deception and fraud
How high the damage is is still unclear, but it is said to be in the millions.
When the fraud was noticed in the Ministry of Economic Affairs last Thursday, the house of Peter Altmaier (CDU) not only switched on the investigative authorities on Friday, but also stopped all advance payments of the corona aid affected.
The ministry initially did not respond to a request for the duration of the suspension.
The Federal Ministry of Economics published a brief report on its website on March 5th.
In the case of corona aid, there is therefore a suspicion in some cases that "government aid funds have been illegally obtained by fraud".
The competent authorities have already started investigations.
"It is a shame that attempts are being made here to exploit the plight of our companies in the corona crisis and to steal the government aid that many urgently need," writes the ministry.
At the request of “Business Insider”, a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics confirmed that several aid programs are affected and that there is suspicion of deception and fraud.
The payments on account are currently being examined.
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