Saturday, 16 November 2013 - 04:46
Possibly Bulgarian fraud The Hague
In The Hague possibly dozens of applications for allowances were filed for people who were not entitled to them.
A Bulgarian man (38) was arrested in August on suspicion of so-called Bulgarian fraud, stated the Public Prosecutor (OM) Friday.
Earlier this year it came to light that hundreds of people fraudulently applied for rent and care allowances in Rotterdam. It reportedly concerned Bulgarians who registered at a fictitious address and then went back to Bulgaria.
Photo by: Mattes/Wikimedia
The fraudsters had the allowances deposited into their own account. The investigation into the case revealed that in The Hague too, millions were collected in rent, care and childcare allowances.
Sevdin H. is reportedly responsible. He filed the applications for dozens of people, while they were not entitled to the government aid.
Another suspect of the Rotterdam fraud was released in October. Three others remain in custody. The Rotterdam fraud alone presumably cost the Dutch treasury millions of euros.
The fraud caused quite a stir this spring, especially in the political field. State Secretary Frans Weekers of Finance had a hard time in the House. He had to account for the fraud, which came to light a few weeks earlier.
Weekers denied knowing anything, but officials from the tax authorities and the tax investigation service FIOD stated they had been aware of the fraud since last year. According to the officials the VVD Weekers ignored previous signals about the fraud charge.