The Investment Bank Berlin (IBB) was responsible for paying out the Corona aid Photo: soenke tollkuehn
From Hildburg Bruns
The lousy business with the Corona aid. A good 7 billion euros were approved by the Berlin Investment Bank (IBB) in the capital, 84.57 million of which have already been reclaimed.
Every 25th case had flaws: out of 430,076 permits, 17,793 were incorrect. Not all funds wrongly withdrawn can be repaid in one fell swoop – installment payments have been agreed with 437 beneficiaries.
Berlin’s IBB was under great time pressure when paying out the emergency aid. Up to 3,000 applications from self-employed people, freelancers and micro-entrepreneurs were received online every hour – what was particularly important at the time was that the money went to a bank in Germany.
By last May, 39,481 voluntary repayments had already been made – at least a good 278 million euros. The investment bank reported 537 suspected cases to the public prosecutor. The Kripo initiated investigations in 2035, according to a parliamentary question from the left.
The first trial took place exactly three years ago: Bobby K. (then 51) from Rudow had applied for 77,000 euros in emergency aid not only for his own window cleaning company, but also for five fake companies. He was in custody for ten weeks and was given 19 months probation plus a fine of 2,000 euros.