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Actually, the state had decided to make fraud as difficult as possible with the Corona aid.
Companies that are affected by the lockdown and therefore want to apply for financial support must therefore make the detour via a tax advisor or auditor.
Only so-called auditing third parties can submit applications for more than 5000 euros to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
For security, more bureaucracy was accepted in the middle of the pandemic.
But this system was apparently not secure either.
At the end of last week, Peter Altmaier's (CDU) Ministry of Economics stopped all advance payments for November, December and bridging aid.
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Companies can actually get up to 50,000 euros before their applications are finally approved in order to be able to settle the most urgent bills - but only at the request of a tax advisor or auditor.
This is over for the time being.
Although the payments of finally approved applications continue, the payments on account have been suspended for the time being.
According to information from WELT, fraudsters have apparently managed to pretend to be tax advisors or auditors, sneak into the system and request help on behalf of companies without their knowledge, which was then paid out to their own accounts.
According to reports, there are only a single-digit number of suspects, but the damage could still run into the millions because the false auditors could have submitted applications for numerous companies.
At IBB, Altmaier is seen to be responsible
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According to WELT information, the trail leads in particular to Berlin.
There the Federal Ministry of Economics filed a complaint with the public prosecutor's office.
The investigative authority left questions about the procedure unanswered on Wednesday.
At the Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB), which handles the aid payments on behalf of the state, a spokesman confirms that “an initial suspected case was uncovered during audits at the end of February” and reported to the Federal Ministry of Economics.
At IBB, you can clearly see the responsibility in the Altmaier Ministry.
The federal government established the system with the third party auditing.
"Like all other states, the IBB checks on the basis of 90-page test criteria that have been agreed between the federal and state governments," said a spokesman.
"The federal government has set up the procedure for verifying the third party checking and, to our knowledge, has been coordinated with the BKA and the Federal Office for Security."
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How exactly the alleged fraudsters managed to smuggle themselves into the system is still unclear.
Actually, the hurdles are high to register as a third party examining person.
Tax consultants and auditors who want to apply for Corona aid must prove their identity in a multi-stage process.
To do this, they will receive a personal identification number (PIN) by letter to their stored postal address, without which they cannot register on the Internet portal.
The data provided during registration are actually compared again with the so-called professional register, which is kept by the competent chambers.
Fraudsters would have to have changed postal addresses in these registers in order to get the PIN for registration.
According to information from WELT, those responsible are currently assuming that the fraudsters have not succeeded in registering completely false identities of non-existent tax advisors or auditors.
Instead, an identity theft apparently took place, in which the data of existing auditors was stolen and changed in order to be able to intercept the access data.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Economics said it had to deal with "considerable criminal energy."
He did not answer questions about the details of the alleged fraud and the amount of damage.
No evidence that the data could have been tampered with
At the Federal Chamber of Tax Advisors, one is still puzzling on Wednesday how the fraud could have ended.
One has not yet been contacted by the investigative authorities, said a spokeswoman for WELT.
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The professional registers, in which the actual data of tax advisors are stored, would be maintained by the regional chambers.
From there, too, there is so far no indication that the data could have been manipulated.
The fraudsters were obviously noticed because the software was also used to search for conspicuous patterns in the actual requests for assistance.
If, for example, identical sums occur frequently, the system sounds an alarm.
"The damage caused must not affect the entrepreneur"
After several cases of fraud, the federal government stopped the aid payments.
The companies that are already suffering from liquidity problems have the damage.
Funding advisor Kai Schimmelfeder has sharply criticized the approach.
Source: WELT / Thomas Klug
The spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs also said there was a comparison with the company data stored with the tax authorities.
It should actually be noticed if the aid money flows into a different account than the one deposited with the tax office.
In addition to the possible damage worth millions for all taxpayers, the fraudsters have also ensured that thousands of companies have to wait even longer for the urgently needed aid money.
So far it is unclear when the advance payments can be resumed.
“In the next few days” it should be so far, the time period “should be kept as short as possible,” said the ministry spokesman.
"It is a shame and regrettable that attempts are being made here to exploit the plight of our companies in the corona crisis and to sneak the state aid that many urgently need."
The ministry emphasizes that it is legally imperative to stop all payments on account until it is ensured that no more illegal money can flow out.
How long the scam has already worked, the speaker does not answer.
It is speculated, however, that the fraudsters may have submitted false claims for months.
That would significantly increase the potential damage.
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“Everything on stocks” is the daily stock market shot from the WELT business editorial team. Every morning from 7 a.m. with the financial journalists Moritz Seyffarth and Holger Zschäpitz. For stock market experts and beginners. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and Deezer. Or directly via RSS feed.