Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach, Bonn: raids for corona and flood aid

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Patrol car in NRW (symbol image)

Photo: Justin Brosch / IMAGO

The police in Cologne have gone on a raid because of suspected fraud with corona and flood aid.

Ten residential and business premises in Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach and Bonn were searched on Tuesday morning, as announced by the public prosecutor and the police.

At the same time, four tax consultants' offices in Cologne and Bergisch Gladbach were searched.

Because of their involvement in the filing of the application, three of them are listed as witnesses and one as an assistant.

A 53-year-old suspect and a 58-year-old suspect were reportedly arrested.

The investigations of a first procedure are directed against seven related suspects between the ages of 20 and 87 years.

The accused are suspected of having applied for economic aid in 39 cases without meeting the necessary requirements.

They are said to have applied for subsidies of almost one million euros, of which 362,000 euros were paid out.

The family is also accused of having unjustly submitted ten applications for "heavy rain emergency aid" after the flood disaster.

In this case, 6500 euros were paid out.

15 applications, funding in the millions

In a second trial, four suspects between the ages of 42 and 64 are being investigated who are said to be working with the family on business.

They are accused of having submitted a total of 15 applications for economic aid for five companies.

According to this, funding of around 1.8 million euros was requested and around 1.3 million paid out.

There is a suspicion that the necessary requirements were not met for this either.

With the emergency aid in the corona crisis, the state tried to support the self-employed and small businesses from bankruptcy.

However, there are repeated reports that the aid has been exploited, sometimes on a large scale.

hba/AFP