Trial in Mönchengladbach: 1.3 million euros through false corona tests!

Trial in Mönchengladbach: 1.3 million euros through false corona tests!

A financial disaster that began in the shadow of the corona pandemic: A 29-year-old is currently standing before the district court in Mönchengladbach for commercial fraud. The defendant, who ran a test center with a partner until three years ago, is said to have swindled a whopping 1.3 million euros from the North Rhine Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KVNO) by billing for corona tests that were never carried out. How South Germans reported, after his test center was deregistered due to changed legal requirements, the defendant continued to use the KVNO portal to bill the customer using the ID of the closed test center.

His criminal business model also found a bizarre continuation: He registered non-existent test centers and made calculations about them, which indicates an alarming misuse of the system. A KVNO employee became aware of the untenable billing after it became clear that the defendant was billing for over 560,000 tests per month. Payments amounting to a further 6.9 million euros ultimately failed to materialize because a computer-based audit program run by the KVNO had reached an upper limit.

Background of the test fraud

The billing fraud is not an isolated case. During the Corona pandemic, numerous test centers were set up in Germany almost overnight, which offered a real El Dorado for fraudsters. ZDF has revealed that up to 5.3 million euros were stolen in an individual affair through false billing by a test center operator in the Rhein-Erft district. The case of Can Hazer, who, as the managing director of a denture company, was encouraged to open a test center, is exemplary of a dark time in which the lax criteria for opening a test center attracted many fraudsters.

In Germany, over 1,200 investigations into test centers have been initiated, with around 130 investigations in Cologne alone. It turns out that the fraud with Corona aid and test centers has caused enormous damage, with an estimate of up to two billion euros. The statutory health insurance associations didn't have much of an incentive to check the bills, as they received a flat rate for the tests carried out, which opened the door for criminal activity.

Outlook for the negotiation

Three days of negotiations are scheduled for the trial in Mönchengladbach until the end of July. It remains to be seen whether the defendant will manage to escape the allegations. Meanwhile, the realization remains that abuse and greed in difficult times can have an immense impact on society. The responsible authorities are required to strengthen control over such sensitive areas as health care.

Overall, it remains to be seen how the further procedures will develop and what lessons can be learned from this difficult time for future crisis situations.

In summary, the serious cases of fraud during the pandemic are a reminder to everyone involved to critically question health care processes and strive for improvements in order to avoid such abuse in the future. The current developments surrounding fraud cases show that there are also immense challenges to overcome in the healthcare sector.

Further information on the ongoing negotiations and the background can be found at WDR.