Terrorist financing from the federal government: Corona aid to Islamist extremists?

Sunday March 14th 2021

Terrorist financing from the federal government
Corona aid to Islamist extremists?

After several cases of fraud, the federal government stops paying out the corona aid. Now it turns out that funds have also flowed to Islamist extremists who are said to have used them to finance terrorism in war zones in the Middle East.

According to a media report, there are apparently also Islamist extremists among the recipients of the Corona emergency aid from the Federal Government. In individual cases there is a suspicion of "direct terrorist financing", reported the "Welt am Sonntag", citing a source in the vicinity of the Berlin law enforcement authorities.

According to the report, the state security and public prosecutor's office are conducting more than a hundred preliminary investigations in Berlin against around 60 people, mosque associations and associations belonging to the Islamist spectrum. The authorities are therefore checking whether and to what extent Corona emergency aid has been collected without a claim. In at least three cases there should be indications that Corona aid in war zones in the Middle East was used to finance terrorism. In total, the total damage in all persecuted cases is around one million euros. According to the newspaper, 250,000 euros have already been seized in searches.

Searches mosques, offices and homes

The State Criminal Police Office (LKA) had searched several mosques, offices of mosque associations and private apartments in Berlin with a large number of investigators. Subsidy fraud can be punished with a prison sentence of up to five years, in serious cases of up to ten years.

In the general debate about fraud with Corona aid, allegations against the head of the Ministry of Finance are also loud. According to information from the German Press Agency, the Federal Ministry of Economics is said to have requested an automatic comparison with data from the tax offices as an additional security line last autumn when creating the programs for November and December aid and most recently Bridging Aid III. This affects, for example, the comparison of account numbers, sales tax and tax IDs. The Ministry of Finance announced, however, that this was "dispensable" and, moreover, could not be implemented quickly, it was said on Friday in Berlin. Initially, no comments were received from the Ministry of Economic Affairs or the Ministry of Finance.

The business magazine "Business Insider" had previously reported that the Ministry of Finance rejected data comparisons despite repeated warnings because it trusted the information provided by tax advisors and lawyers. In November and December, the Ministry of Finance was repeatedly warned of fraud down to state secretary level if there was no automatic data comparison with tax offices for applications for corona aid such as November or December aid.