Nuremberg (dpa/lby) – The public prosecutor’s office has brought charges against two men and a woman because they are said to have massively cheated in the operation of corona test centers. The two male operators were taken into custody because of the risk of absconding, said the central office for combating crime in the health care system, based at the Nuremberg public prosecutor’s office, on Wednesday.
The two operators are said to have wrongly billed a total of 645,000 euros. However, only 435,000 euros were paid out before the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians became aware of the investigation. The process was started by a bank that had started a money laundering process.
More than 100,000 euros and a Mercedes that brought in 11,000 euros have already been seized. In total, the prosecution accuses the two main accused of fraud in eight cases and attempted fraud in 20 cases – the third accused of aiding and abetting.
The two men are said to have operated test centers in the cities of Nuremberg, Fürth and Schwabach. The number of tests billed to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians was significantly higher than the number of tests actually carried out. The third accused, an employee, is said to have reported the inflated numbers and helped with the fraud.
One of the three accused had confessed in the course of the investigation, the public prosecutor said. The other two have not yet provided any information.