Man is said to have applied for corona aid of over 2.5 million euros - now he is on trial in Munich

Authorities across Germany are concerned 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

.

Born in Gelsenkirchen, last 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

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

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 still 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.