Authorities across Germany deal with thousands of suspected cases of fraud involving Corona aid.
Now the phenomenon arrives in the courtroom.
With the
November aid
, the federal government wanted to
alleviate
the economic consequences of the
corona
pandemic.
But the prospect of easy money also attracted
fraudsters
.
A man is now on trial in Munich who, according to investigators, has submitted 91 applications.
Munich -
Corona
*
help allegedly fraudulently
dealt with today (January 11) at the
Munich I Regional Court
.
A 31 year-old man is accused of improperly in at least 91 cases
Corona
-
relief
to have applied - even in several German states.
It concerns cases in
Bavaria
,
Baden-Württemberg
,
Saarland
,
North Rhine-Westphalia
,
Hesse
and
Berlin
.
The native of Gelsenkirchen, who last lived in
London
lived, is said to have applied for more than 2.5 million euros with bogus identities, almost 68,000 of which were paid out.
Numerous other processes of this kind are likely to occupy courts nationwide 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.
Corona aid: In Bavaria alone, 844 investigations into suspected fraud
The Bavarian State Criminal Police Office alone had known more than 1,400 suspected cases by the end of 2020, including
1,120
cases of subsidy
fraud
in the case of
Corona
*
emergency aid
and bridging
aid
and more than 300 cases of other fraud, for example in the case of artist
aid
.
In
Bavaria
prosecutors initiated according to the Bavarian Ministry of Justice at least 844 investigations and judicial inquiries in connection with applications for corona emergency aid from the federal government and the Free State.
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.
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 currently ongoing in many proceedings."
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.
Corona aid: The bar is now higher
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.
(dpa) * Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen Digital editorial network.