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The boss of the Departmental Directorate of Public Finances (DDFP) in the Alpes-Maritimes wants to put things flat:
“we must not call all Maralpine entrepreneurs a crook”
.
Jean-Paul Catanese is still a little annoyed by the figures released in the press regarding fraud in the Covid solidarity fund at the departmental level.
"We are talking about millions, then billions and in the end we mix the national figures with those of the department, it's not right"
, he explains to
Figaro
.
So how much ?
At the national level, the State has paid, since the start of the health crisis, some 41 billion euros to several tens of thousands of companies to prevent the cessation of activity.
Of this sum, it is estimated that 440 million were either distributed by mistake - we then speak of undue payment - or paid to companies that deliberately lied about their turnover.
In this case, it is solidarity fund fraud.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, an envelope of 1.2 billion euros was distributed to 54,000 local businesses.
According to Jean-Paul Catanese, the undue amount would amount to around 6 million euros.
With regard to fraud, the director of the DDFP estimates it to date at 3.7 million euros, or just over 0.3% of the total.
"It's not negligible, it's already too much, but it puts things in their proper context
," he insists.
Read also“It was easy, I returned fictitious turnover and the site accepted”: the fraudsters of the Covid solidarity fund in court
For these scams, 174 complaints have already been filed by public finance, including 82 in Nice alone.
"
For the example
", continues the director.
“
We still have reports almost daily
”, abounds the deputy public prosecutor, Jean-Philippe Navarre.
The magistrate specifies that several entrepreneurs prosecuted have already been tried in the criminal court,
"in immediate appearance or on prior admission of guilt"
.
With regard to the profile of the defendants, Jean-Paul Catanese explains that it is not, or almost never,
“the local merchant who has a storefront”
.
The latter points more to “
dummy companies, created from scratch to be able to receive aid or which had been dormant for years and which suddenly woke up.
» Insofar as all the complaints have not yet been processed and all the defendants brought to justice, the amount of the damage for the tax administration is at this stage only an estimate that will be necessary without there is no doubt that it will be revised upwards very soon.