645,000 euros surreptitiously: Three people cheated with corona tests in Nuremberg - and are exposed
Created: 07/27/2022, 18:37
By: Felix Herz
Three fraudsters are said to have stolen 645,000 euros in Nuremberg with fake corona tests (symbol image).
© spfimages / IMAGO
They registered significantly more tests than they had actually carried out - and collected a lot of money.
Now the scammers are going to court.
Nuremberg – Unfortunately, it had to be expected that the corona pandemic would also tempt numerous people to take advantage of the situation and put money into their own pockets.
It starts with the mask affair, in which Andrea Tandler made a bizarre appearance in front of the Bavarian state parliament, and goes all the way to fraudulent operators of test centers.
There is currently an example of the latter case in and around Nuremberg.
645,000 euros surreptitiously with test centers: three people accused
The public prosecutor's office in Nuremberg has brought charges against two men and a woman for massive fraud.
According to the Central Office for Combating Crime in the Health Service, the two men are in custody.
Reason: acute risk of absconding.
The three people are accused of having wrongly billed 645,000 euros in their test centers.
Of this, 435,000 euros were paid out – then the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians became aware of the investigation.
The process was started by a bank that had started a money laundering process.
The first consequences for the fraudsters were the detection of the fakes: more than 100,000 euros and a Mercedes that brought in 11,000 euros have already been seized.
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Fraud in corona test centers: three people in the dock
The operators of the test centers in the cities of Nuremberg, Fürth and Schwabach are the main accused.
Overall, the prosecution accuses the two main accused of fraud in eight cases and attempted fraud in 20 cases.
The third accused is confronted with the accusation of aiding and abetting.
The scheme used by the scammers was very simple: they billed the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians for significantly more tests than they actually carried out.
The third accused, an employee, is said to have reported the inflated numbers and helped with the fraud.
According to the public prosecutor's office, one of the two main suspects has so far confessed - the other two have so far remained silent on the allegations.
(
fhz
with
dpa
)
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