Raid against brazen Corona fraudsters with Muslim migration background in North Rhine-Westphalia! Nine suspects are alleged to have billed for tests that were not carried out at all in 14 test centres on a grand scale. On Thursday morning, the raid was carried out by almost 100 police officers.
The public prosecutor’s office in Wuppertal has been investigating the men, aged 22 to 57, for commercial fraud since September 2021.
Senior public prosecutor Wolf-Tilman Baumert: “These defendants are alleged to have operated a total of 14 test centres in Remscheid, Essen, Oberhausen, Velbert and Herne as managers of three companies based in Wuppertal and Remscheid and to have billed the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians for tests that were not actually carried out.”
The police finally tracked down the brazen fraudsters when several citizens reported to the officers that they had received notifications of allegedly negative test results without having previously taken Corona quick tests.
Baumert: “For further clarification of the facts, court search warrants were therefore obtained against the residences of the accused in Wuppertal, Remscheid, Mülheim an der Ruhr, Langen and Essen, the business premises of the companies involved as well as the test centres operated by them.”
In addition, there are also searches against two other companies based in Cologne and Königsbrunn, which are said to have been used by the fraudsters as service providers. However, there is no suspicion against the managing directors of these two companies; presumably they were also deceived.
The public prosecutor’s office in Wuppertal had the suspects’ flats and business premises all searched at the same time at 9 a.m. so that they could not destroy any more evidence. Baumert: “In the case of a later conviction, the law provides for heavy prison sentences of six months to ten years per offence.”