Extortion of grants from the COVID-19 anti-crisis shield
Nationwide extortion of grants from the COVID-19 anti-crisis shield. Five persons detained by the CBA and the Police. Charges including fraud and participation in criminal activities of an organised crime group.
Officers of the CBA Regional Office in Gdańsk, in cooperation with the Voivodeship Police Headquarters in Bydgoszcz, have been investigating the obtaining of subsidies based on documents attesting an untruth, submitted under the Act on special solutions related to preventing, counteracting and combating COVID-19, other infectious diseases and emergencies caused by them, and some other acts. The proceedings have been conducted under the supervision of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Gdańsk.
In the course of activities carried out, it was established that the criminal group acquired 30 different entities and carried out a number of offences related to extorting money with their assistance, as part of support launched for entrepreneurs.
By using the economic entities, persons involved in the practice led a number of labour offices, located throughout the country, to an unfavourable regulation of property of the State Treasury.
These entities did not meet the conditions for obtaining aid, and the data indicated in the subsidy applications regarding income, employees and even places of conducting business activities were fictitious.
In recent days, five persons have been detained in connection with this case and have already heard charges in the public prosecutor's office. The charges currently brought relate to the extortion of nearly PLN 2 million. However, the findings of the investigation indicate that the extortion may have reached as much as PLN 7.5 million.
Additionally, based on documents which attested an untruth, the perpetrators attempted to extort further benefits from labour offices in the amount of over PLN 1.3 million.
The activities were conducted in Warsaw and the Serock Commune. At the same time, searches were conducted in the detainees' places of residence and the premises of an entity which stored documentation on the activities of companies used to commit the criminal offences.
Upon the motion of the prosecutor, the Court applied for a remand in custody for 3 months against the main organiser of the offence. The detainees were also subjected to non-custodial preventive measures in the form of police supervision.
CBA Press Team