– We accept crown scammers – E24

Since Norway closed in March, the government has paid just over NKr 5.4 billion to companies affected by the coronavirus. The measures had a huge impact on the business community and, after a few weeks, 301,000 people were registered as completely unemployed.

The agencies responsible for compensation schemes, the Tax Administration and Nav, have joined forces with Økokrim to prevent abuse of the schemes.

Both fraud attempts and misunderstandings

In total, the automatic control mechanism of the Tax Administration has stopped 17,000 applications for an estimated value of NOK 1.3 billion.

– Can you estimate how much of the 1.3 billion is attempted fraud?

– We do not have specific information about it. The reason for the refusal is that they do not meet the payment terms and therefore there will be deliberate fraud attempts and misunderstandings of the qualification requirements, Acting Chief Tax Officer Eve Vangsnes Bergli tells Aftenposten / E24.

I suspect that few actors are behind various cases.

They have also submitted 3,700 claims for reimbursement totaling NOK 189 million.

E24 has mentioned a man accused of having defrauded the compensation plan of the Tax Administration for 500,000 NOK.

Earlier, E24 also mentioned the Tjuvholmen Sjømagasin restaurant, which received NOK 355,720 in cash as a result of the closure related to the corona crisis. However, they had planned to close as a result of the renovations and had to pay the money back.

Nav, which pays salary compensation, has reported 12 cases for a total of NOK 20 million.

The methods used are deliberately entering incorrect information, such as fictitious income and identity.

– What has been revealed on our site are stolen identities and mass manufacturing, with up to 600 identities. Then we see the outline of deliberate fraud attempts, and that few actors are behind several of the cases, Nav director Hans Christian Holte tells Aftenposten / E24.

– We look at the specific applications coming in and then we check the central registers and the information we’re sitting on for accuracy. Then some of the investigations lead to specific cases that are sent to Økokrim, Holte continues.

Ecocrime manager Pål Lønseth says fraud cases related to corona payments have a high priority.

– We accept deceptive lower value cases because we want to crack down on crown scammers and show that there is a significant risk of discovery to cheat these schemes, tells Aftenposten / E24.

– We have had several cases in which we have made concessions based on the information we have received from Nav and the Tax Administration. We have seized large amounts of valuables related to those actions, and we have also used legal authority to stop transactions that are underway, he adds.

No hint of extensive cheating

Lønseth boasts of collaboration with the two agencies.

The tax administration has around 400 employees who are involved in the work of the compensation scheme for the business community. The Nav control environment has about 100 people.

– The collaboration between Økokrim, the Tax Administration and Nav on a good control of corona solutions would not have worked so well without the good experiences that we have to take advantage of. Here we have collaborated for several years in a joint assessment of where threats lie, intelligence and control work on work-related crime. We are enjoying that collaboration now, says Holte.

Tax director Vangsnes Bergli says there is no indication that many are cheating, but adds:

– There are, and we accept them, well helped by good cooperation.