June 19, 2020 /
At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, many companies faced economic bottlenecks and were threatened with possible insolvency. To counteract this, the state distributed around 71 billion euros to secure their livelihoods, according to the German government. A gang of fraudsters used bogus companies to exploit these aid payments, and around 12.5 million euros were applied for. Between April and October 2021, the group allegedly had around three million euros paid out to them. They have now been sentenced to long prison terms at Hamburg Regional Court.
The actions of the perpetrators
By using various dummy companies and straw men, i.e. sending another person forward to execute contracts on behalf of a backer, the group made a total of 12.5 million euros. The judge, Malte Hansen, stated that “the manner in which the offense was committed was capable of significantly disrupting economic order”. In addition, the main defendant only confessed to a limited extent, he only testified to what was already known from the files and showed no remorse
He was therefore sentenced to ten years in prison. Two of his co-defendants were sentenced to five and seven years in prison respectively.
Special severity against accountants
A 48-year-old accountant was sentenced to eight years in prison and banned from practicing his profession for three years for aiding and abetting this practice. Certain professions, such as lawyers or tax advisors, are assumed to act honestly. The court therefore justified the high sentence on the grounds of general prevention, i.e. that the sentence should act as a deterrent. It was also ordered to confiscate the loot of three million euros.
The Munich public prosecutor’s office is also dealing with the coronavirus aid fraud. Several suspects are already in custody.
Fraud with corona aid
Especially in the initial phase of the pandemic, it was relatively easy for fraudsters to obtain subsidy aid. The estimated loss is now around 400 million euros. The reason often given for this is the “unbureaucratic help” that was then exploited. When rapid tests were needed in many places in the second year of the pandemic, a new “business model” emerged. Test centers were urgently needed, so that here too it was not always checked who was acting as the operator. In some cases, absurdly high numbers of daily corona tests were reported for billing. Nationwide, the damage here is estimated at 134 million euros.