Raid in 150 Berlin corona test sites - member of a notorious clan suspected of fraud

As part of a possible billing fraud with corona rapid tests, there was a raid in Berlin.

Among the 50 suspects is a member of a clan.

Berlin - Especially this spring, corona rapid tests * were a central means of the federal government to allow easing.

All over Germany, including Berlin, the test sites just grew out of the ground.

Now the Berlin Attorney General is investigating with the police against 50 suspected billing fraudsters.

There was a large-scale raid of 150 test sites in the capital.

Corona: Raid on 150 test sites in Berlin - member of notorious extended family suspected

Since Wednesday at 7.15 a.m., the investigators have been carrying out their search warrants in around 150 test sites in Berlin, as

reported by

the

.

More than 200 officials from the State Office of Criminal Investigation and the State Police Directorate were deployed, the police said.

According to

information, it remains open

whether evidence has been found so far

.

"The starting point was suspicion of billing fraud in connection with Corona * rapid tests in the Neukölln district," said the public prosecutor's office, Martin Steltner. In June the plausibility of the invoices for the tests was checked “across the board”. "This gave rise to further suspicions that we are investigating," added Steltner. There is a suspicion that the criminal clan structures are related to the billing of the tests.

According

to the

, there is also a special suspect

among the 50 suspects

, a member of the notorious Remmo family.

The extended family has been making headlines for years, not only in the Neukölln district, including the jewel robbery of Dresden *.

The suspect is said to have opened a test site in Tempelhof several months ago.

Due to the obligation to test, which applied in shops in spring, numerous privately operated stations for corona tests * were set up in Berlin within a few weeks.

The number was now over 1,600. Clans, among others, are said to have taken advantage of this fact.

Corona: Billing fraudsters "invented" tests - Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians withholds millions

But how did the fraud work?

At the beginning, 18 euros per test could be billed through the responsible Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV).

Since the KV only had to state the number of smears and the operator number on the part of the test centers, it was theoretically possible to "invent" cases.

Around 100 million euros flowed to the providers of the free corona tests in Berlin alone from March to May.

According to the KV, private providers are said to have billed 11.5 million corona tests so far.

In view of the suspicion of fraud, a payment amount of 3.6 million euros was withheld in May.

For June even a sum of 78 million euros. The June payments are only made after an exchange with the investigating authorities. There were also 160 suspected cases in June. Since July there has only been 12.50 euros per test, which is why the test sites in Berlin have now decreased to 1,300.