Abuse of Maurer’s corona loans: the federal government is left with CHF 1.7 billion

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During the corona pandemic, the federal government helped many companies unbureaucratically. For example, then Finance Minister Ueli Maurer (72) and the banks stamped out the Corona loan program within a few days. That can get expensive. The federal government expects it to get stuck at 1.7 billion francs – equivalent to eleven percent of the total amount of the loan program – as the “NZZ” reported Friday.

One reason for this: the readily available loans – companies received up to half a million Swiss francs within 15 minutes – attracted fraudsters. At the end of May this year, the amount of potentially misused Covid loans totaled more than 320 million francs.

“Misuse is excluded”

Maurer downplayed the dangers at the time: “Abuse is practically impossible, I am fundamentally convinced of that,” he said. But he was wrong: The federal government filed criminal charges in 2,000 cases. Of these, there were 460 in the canton of Zurich alone. According to the newspaper, most crimes were committed in construction, but there were also numerous offenses in the hospitality and retail sector.

And the amount is likely to add up as many potential fraud cases continue to be cleared up. However, the Swiss Federal Audit Office (SFAO) criticizes the authorities for showing “corona fatigue” in investigating the abuses. In one office it is said that the checks are far too complicated and too expensive, in another it is said that it makes no sense to punish people now.

Prohibited Distributed Dividends

The authorities found significantly fewer inconsistencies in social assistance payments. Of the five billion francs that flowed to some 35,000 restaurants and hotels, retailers and other SMEs as contributions à Fund perdu, there is only such a suspicion in about 200 cases. Abuse could only be identified in 21 cases.

However, an audit by the SFAO revealed that a number of companies receiving a hardship payment were not complying with the law when it came to paying dividends. In the first half of 2022 alone, 80 companies would have paid out their shareholders, although this was prohibited. The situation was similar for companies that received corona loans: in the same period, more than 160 companies paid dividends of CHF 24 million despite the ban.

“Even if you don’t like to hear it, abuses and mistakes have been made. Because such appalling amounts of money have been disbursed, the federal government is being threatened with bailout amounts in the triple-digit millions or even billions,” SFAO deputy director Brigitte Christ told the newspaper. NZZ.” She demands that the authorities clean up now and follow all directions consistently. (sf)

Source:Blick