With a raid in four federal states on Tuesday, investigators took action against the alleged authors of systematic fraud with state corona aid.
According to the police in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, the attack was aimed at five suspects who had applied for hundreds of subsidies and caused millions in damage.
The raid took place in Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg.
According to the investigators, the suspects are said to have acted between the ages of 26 and 62 for themselves and on behalf of other companies.
They submitted at least around 360 applications for emergency and bridging aid in Lower Saxony and other federal states "with deliberately false information".
Private and business addresses were searched, but no arrests were made.
According to the police, evidence such as bills, storage media and technical devices were confiscated.
At the same time, possibly illegally acquired assets amounting to three and a half million euros were secured.
The emergency services confiscated cash and expensive watches, among other things.
The searches were carried out in Oldenburg, Bonn, Hamburg and Neumünster, among other places.
According to the authorities, the five suspects applied for subsidies totaling around 26 million euros, and the investigators estimated the alleged damage at several million euros.
The men are accused of commercial and gang subsidy fraud.
The investigations were triggered by reports from a Lower Saxony development bank that had become suspicious.
bro/cfm