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Covid relief loans are a good thing, that’s indisputable. It has helped many midsize companies through the difficult times of the Corona crisis. But they also attract scammers. The number of preliminary investigations into alleged fraud related to Covid 19 loans has increased considerably, as reported by the “Tages-Anzeiger”.
According to Fedpol’s website, the anti-money laundering unit had filed a total of 466 criminal charges based on these reports as of the end of August. At the end of September there were already 534 ads. That’s an increase of almost 17 percent.
The “Tages-Anzeiger” relates the case of Vasily A. The serial criminal claims to have obtained a loan of 50,000 francs for one of his bankrupt companies. “I just tried it and never expected it to work,” he says.
Send companies out of business
The system is deliberately designed to be simple. One way is all it takes to get up to half a million interest-free bank loans.
Vasily A’s scam: He takes over a business, buys goods on account, and resells them. Then it sends the company out of business. Therefore, it appears in the Public Ministry.
In April he fills out the loan form for one of his companies. Not to mention sales. He estimates sales at 50,000 francs, a pure fantasy figure, as he tells the “Tages-Anzeiger.”
No extract from the debt collection record
20 minutes later he had the money in his account! He could hardly believe his luck: 50,000 francs. “Without submitting an extract from the debt collection record, neither from my company nor from me,” he says. Almost everything is removed. Nobody asks. Wastes some of the money.
But: “I also want to pay the money back”, promises Vasily A. “I invested most of the money,” he says. Investments of any kind are prohibited according to the credit rules. You do not have a guilty conscience that you have received an aid loan. (pbe)
