An Algerian citizen who lived in the French town of Èvenos (French Riviera) has received at least 8,123 euros in Basque social aid since 000 because he was irregularly registered in Vitoria. The individual, a hairdresser by profession, also received social benefits in France. His arrest and indictment for crimes against the Public Treasury and Social Security has been carried out by the National Police. Exactly one year ago, agents of the Aliens Brigade arrested a Senegalese citizen who came to collect more than one million euros irregularly from the aid of the Government of Urkullu.

The National Police has managed to abort a new fraud in the collection of the Income Guarantee Income (RGI), the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) and the Complementary Housing Benefit (PVC). The Algerian hairdresser accumulated these benefits and collected them for almost a decade although the National Police can only charge him for the collection of 90,000 euros from having documented the date on which he had registered his residence in France.

The fraud used by the detainee reproduces the 'modus operandi' of other foreign citizens who obtain with irregular registrations the granting of these aids that have no limit in their collection, with soft controls and that are not investigated by the Ertzaintza even when they are communicated by the employees of the Basque Employment Service-Lanbide as happened with the Senegalese of the fraud of the million euros.

The National Police detected that the Algerian citizen resided in the town of Èvenos, located between Marseille and Monaco, from an alert given by the Government Subdelegation in Guipúzcoa. A strange beginning of the investigation that neither the Delegation of the Central Government in Euskadi nor the National Police have clarified. The hairdresser resided almost 1,000 kilometers from Vitoria, where he was registered, and some alleged accomplice was responsible for collecting the notifications allegedly sent by the Basque Employment Service. The Basque Government has not clarified how a fraud could be maintained from 2014 until last May or if at least an open investigation has been opened into the case.

The fraudster was arrested when he voluntarily went to an appointment communicated by the Basque Government to warn him of his situation. When he went to the Lanbide offices when the aid was suspended, he was arrested by the National Police.

This new fraud in the collection of Basque social aid is made public six months after a new rule came into force that does not limit the time for its collection and that, presumably, increases the controls for its collection. The Department of Labor led by Vice President Idoia Mendia (PSOE) finalizes a regulation to minimize these frauds that are almost always detected by the National Police.

In fact, the Ertzaintza had a commissioner who acted as a liaison with the Basque Employment Service but when the first signs of the fraud of the Senegalese of one million euros were detected, he refused to investigate ex officio. At present, not even a commissioner has been appointed to these functions after retirement. Nor has the collaboration agreement between the Ertzaintza and the Department of Labor been updated despite the fact that it was intended to improve it after the failures detected in the case of the Senegalese millionaire.

At Lanbide, workers take it for granted that the political leadership is uncomfortable with the persecution of irregular collections. Currently, any suspicion detected by a worker must be reported to Lanbide's legal services, which will be responsible for processing the complaint before the Public Prosecutor's Office. For months, the political control of the legal services has become the stopper for revealing the existence of fraud or for concealing it.

  • National Police
  • Ertzaintza
  • France
  • Vitoria-Gasteiz
  • PSOE
  • Social security
  • ERTE

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