Coronavirus DK: Criminals exploit the crisis

The Danish government’s decision to disburse the funds in the economic relief package quickly has enabled some businesses to collect money under fraudulent pretenses (DK). That was reported on Thursday by the Danish State Prosecutor for Serious Economic and International Crime, which is usually referred to by its Danish abbreviation, SØIK. The funds were intended to pay employees' salaries while they could not work and to compensate firms for operating expenses. The agency suspects that more than DKK 7 million (about $1 million) was disbursed unnecessarily, and it has thus far recovered about DKK 670,000 (about $70,000). The Secretariat for Money Laundering has received 133 referrals from banks on possible swindling with relief funds. 

The industry association for small and medium-sized businesses fears that the reports may have consequences for its member firms, which are most in need of relief funds but which also have fewer resources than larger firms to satisfy the increasing requirements for documentation and control of the disbursements. The association had requested a quick release of the funds because many small firms were in danger of going bankrupt.

Whistleblowers wanted

On Wednesday, Minister for Business Simon Kollerup announced that the government, along with almost all the other parliamentary parties, passed a bill to prevent such fraud (DK). The bill includes a whistleblower program that will make it easier for employees and others to report the abuse of relief funds. Fraud related to the aid package is subject to much higher penalties than usual.

Don’t talk to strangers

At the lower end of the crime scale, there have also been reports of thieves using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse (DK) gain entry into people’s homes. For example, four men and a woman were convicted of robbery for threatening to commit violent acts against a couple in their eighties in the municipality of Hvidovre. They are also subject to higher than usual sanctions because their crime involved exploiting the pandemic. 

Earlier a woman retiree in southern Jutland received a visit from two men in plastic outfits and masks (DK) who said they were from the Health Authority. She didn’t let them in, and when she lifted her phone to show that she would call the police, they ran off. The police warn that trick-thieves exploit the Danes’ high level of trust in one another and in the authorities and that people should be skeptical and ask for identification in such situations.

The most vulnerable victims

There are also suspicions of a worse sort of crime that is not being reported (DK) to the usual degree because of conditions during the lockdown. The number of reports of sexual assault against children has fallen sharply in the past two months. Cases of rape and incest are down 60 percent, and cases of other violence against children are down 42 percent. The likely reason is that children have not been in school regularly and their teachers have not had the opportunity to observe signs of abuse.

This has led Astrid Krag, the Minister of Social Affairs and the Interior, and Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil, the Minister of Children and Education, to send a letter to schools and recreation centers urging the teachers and staff to be attentive to such developments. Spokespersons for the police and Save the Children concurred that the lockdown is probably the reason for the drop in the reports.