More than 16 million euros for corona tests that weren't even done - because there was no test center at all. A suspected case of fraud in the Cologne area once again highlights how criminals are said to have exploited German corona policy.
Cologne (dpa / lnw) - A gang of fraudsters is said to have stolen more than 16 million euros by billing invented corona tests from non-existent test centers in the Cologne area. The public prosecutor's office and the police reported on this on Tuesday after the investigators had carried out searches against suspects in the hours before and had executed four arrest warrants. There are a total of 22 suspects in the process, they said. The "suspected main mastermind" was arrested in Sicily.
The group's alleged actions were downright "simple," said detective director Michael Esser. "Even we experienced investigators were amazed that with just a few preparatory actions, so much money can ultimately be stashed away undetected."
The suspects are said to have falsified a letter from the city of Cologne to certify a test center at the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) North Rhine. A real existing test site number was inserted. Where the alleged perpetrators got them from is still unclear. However, such a number can be found on messages about test results, Esser explained.
With the forged letter, it should have been possible to gain access to the KV portal in order to bill for tests. For the expected mail from the KV, people were then recruited who would have made their mailboxes available. A total of nine supposed test centers were created in this way in the Cologne city area, plus one in Langenfeld. But they never existed. Not a single test was done either.
"Frightening" was what Esser called the events that he gave as an example. For example, for a non-existent nursing service, the suspects would have submitted more than 185,000 alleged antigen tests for February 2022. "That would have been 4.6 tests per minute," said Esser. At the same time, he emphasized that there was no evidence that anyone had breached their duties.
"It was a forgery of a letter, which ultimately led to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians arranging these payments. That was an act of the perpetrators," he said. Cologne's chief public prosecutor Ulrich Bremer said that the state had given a "huge leap of faith" in a historic situation. Help should have been unbureaucratic. However, the term "unbureaucratic" usually means that control mechanisms are reduced. "Dare to use more bureaucracy" is "not always the worst idea," said Bremer.
According to the investigators, around 16.6 million of the around 21.5 million requested funds were actually paid out. More than six million have already been confiscated. However, a sum of millions is still missing. The investigations were initiated by several suspected money laundering reports from banks. An amount in the millions was pushed back and forth on different accounts. The arrest warrant assumes a crime period of June 2021 and May 2022.
Premises in Cologne, Bergisch Gladbach, Hürth, Siegburg, Langenfeld, Wuppertal and Palermo were searched on Tuesday. The four men for whom arrest warrants have been executed are the alleged organizers of the gang and are between 31 and 46 years old. All have their main residence in Cologne.
However, the main suspect traveled to Sicily at short notice last weekend – for family reasons. A return that was actually planned did not take place. Therefore, the Cologne investigators applied for a European arrest warrant, with which he was picked up in Sicily.
