The Senegalese of the million euros received aid since 2008 with false registers in four Basque municipalities

• Fraud A Senegalese collects more than a million euros in Basque social aid with 62 false identities

ON

, the 41-year-old Senegalese citizen accused of receiving more than a million euros in social aid, began collecting Basque benefits in 2008. A constant source of income that was cut short only when agents from the

arrested him on March 21 when he practically got off the plane and three days after the National Police arrested one of his collaborators, an

from

.

ON came to use 62 false identities to guarantee the collection of 1,091,416 euros, used 22 passports, took advantage of fictitious registrations in four Biscayan municipalities and falsified documentation to maintain these aids until last March.

The arrest of ON by the National Police put an end to the biggest fraud in Basque social assistance that has been managed by the

since 2012, but which was previously the responsibility of the three provincial councils.

social services

.

Since then, as EL MUNDO announced yesterday, it has NOT extended with up to 62 false identities the collection of these aids that the

grants indefinitely to those who document that they have been registered in a Basque municipality for three years and lack income and property.

ON, on provisional release awaiting trial, had the collaboration of another 23 people of foreign nationality to guarantee the continuity of his criminal activity.

The Senegalese citizen obtained fictitious registrations in the Biscayan towns of

,

,

and

.

With 22 falsified passports -by replacing the photo of their holders with their own images- plus the fictitious registrations and sublease contracts for rooms in rental flats, ON made sure to charge each of the alleged recipients 625 euros per month for RGI and another 250 euros for the fictitious rent of rooms.

The Basque Government yesterday avoided clarifying how a continuous fraud of more than one million euros has been allowed.

Its spokesperson,

limited himself to assuring that it is a "minority" and there is "permanent control" despite the fact that the opposite is evident.

The Basque Government does not provide data on fraud and only quantifies what it calls "improper charges" which include the benefits that have been made to aid recipients that are later reviewed.

According to data from the Basque Employment Service, in 2021 around 10,000 recipients of Basque social assistance did not return the amounts they had received improperly.

The Basque Government claims by certified mail to these recipients the return of the amounts pending return and, if it does not receive a response, it publishes these claims in the

(BOPVA).

Every day the Bulletin of the Basque Country publishes a list of social aid files that have not been notified to those who receive the aid when attempts have been made to locate them at their homes.

Yesterday, June 7, the order signed by the director of Lanbide

included 532 failed notifications to recipients of this Basque social aid.

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