Covid-19: State emergency aid fraud cost more than 174 million euros

The generosity of state aid over the course of the health crisis has whetted appetites. According to the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt, the measures implemented at the time of “no matter whathave been the subject of fraudulent claims by unscrupulous companies. In total, it would thus be 174 million euros that would have beenunduly paid since the beginning of the crisis“, he thus affirmed in an interview with Parisian.

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Figures to be put into perspective with the total aid paid by the State. “The emergency aid paid since the start of the crisis represents around 40 billion euros for the solidarity fund and nearly 36 billion euros for partial activity“, specified Olivier Dussopt. Tracfin agents are also vigilant against the risk of fraud in state-guaranteed loans (PGE).

Range of frauds

In total, 74,000 payments were not due, of which 8,000 were detected as fraudulent. The authorities have thus, since the debate on the crisis, been able to measure the creativity of fraudsters. A fake entrepreneur pretending to be a real boss, companies that inflate their reference turnover to receive more aid… Some even register their company as belonging to a professional category to which it does not belong. does not belong, but which is better protected by the State: restoration in particular.

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Each procedure will have to be brought to justice to enable the State to recover the funds. “When we are on cases of proven fraud, it obviously takes much longer to recover the money“, thus admitted Olivier Dussopt, while explaining that the complaints of the State were transmitted to justice”by bundlesto give the judiciary more time to process them.