Fraud with humanitarian payments: four foreigners defrauded the state of nearly 3 million crowns
Four foreigners from south-eastern Europe fraudulently depleted nearly three million crowns from state subsidies for solidarity households. The money was spent on foreign holidays and online shopping.
Four foreigners abused payments for refugees, damage exceeds 2.9 million crowns
Nearly three million crowns were fraudulently extracted from the state treasury by four foreigners from south-eastern Europe with temporary residence in the Czech Republic. According to the Moravian-Silesian police, the funds were obtained through almost 750 applications for subsidies for solidarity households accommodating Ukrainian refugees – without the knowledge of more than 70 Ukrainian women in whose names the applications were submitted.
As reported by Blesk.cz, two men and two women exploited the ignorance and distress of Ukrainian women from the end of 2022 until mid-2023. They first offered to help the women with processing humanitarian payments, obtained their banking details, and subsequently submitted applications for state subsidies electronically in their names. According to investigators, they deliberately provided false information in the applications.
The men kept the disbursed funds for themselves. Their partners were to participate in laundering the proceeds of criminal activity. The four spent the funds on, among other things, expensive foreign holidays and thousands of purchases in online shops.
"The accused face two to eight years in prison," said Soňa Štětínská, spokeswoman for the Moravian-Silesian police. Criminal prosecution is being conducted at liberty. The police will now submit the file to the state prosecutor with a proposal to bring charges.
The investigation file, which detectives compiled from mid-2023 onwards, comprises 12 boxes and nearly 5,000 pages. According to the police, half of the damage caused to the labour office has been recovered. By selling a seized motorcycle, it was possible to obtain approximately 300,000 crowns, which will be used together with other seized funds as compensation for the damage. Officers further secured approximately 70,000 crowns in foreign currency equivalent.
Source: Blesk.cz