Corona news in the ticker: tens of thousands of fines in Bavaria are still open

News about Corona from June 2, 2023

Tens of thousands of procedures for corona fines in Bavaria are still open

Monday, June 05, 2023 at 06:24: Even after the end of the Corona measures, tens of thousands of cases are still open in the municipalities in Bavaria because of fines imposed. This was the result of a survey by the German Press Agency in six large cities in Bavaria.

The district administration department (KVR) of the city of Munich still has to process around 22,000 procedures for violations of corona measures out of around 46,000 procedures since the beginning of the pandemic, as a spokeswoman announced. The authority plans to do this within the three-year limitation period. In Nuremberg, 4,600 of around 16,800 advertisements are currently still open. According to the city, it should take at least two years until all procedures are completed. The city of Augsburg currently has 1,300 procedures to process. Around 11,400 ads were received there during the pandemic. According to a spokeswoman, all but four of the approximately 5,800 procedures in Regensburg have been completed. In 20 cases, a decision is still pending before the district court.

The cities of Ingolstadt and Würzburg have already processed all the advertisements. In Ingolstadt, the administration had to process around 4,700 reports, in Würzburg the number of procedures was 4,300. During the corona pandemic, violations of the mask requirement, quarantine requirements and exit restrictions were punished.

According to a judgment by the Federal Administrative Court, the April 2020 ban on staying outdoors outside of your own home alone or with roommates was not lawful. In these cases, those affected can reclaim fines that have already been imposed. If a corresponding procedure is still open in the municipalities, it will be discontinued according to the Bavarian Ministry of Health.

But the municipal administrations are also very busy with the processing of all other open procedures. A spokeswoman for the KVR in Munich announced that the timely processing far exceeded the personnel capacity of the fine office. The result is long processing times.

Also stopping the pending procedures is not an option for the municipalities or the Ministry of Health: A blanket cessation of the pending procedures would conflict with the principle of equal treatment. “It would undermine the population’s trust in uniform law enforcement and would arbitrarily privilege those affected whose proceedings – for whatever reason – have not yet been completed,” said a ministry spokeswoman.

Aiwanger wants a longer period for repayment Corona– Aid in Bavaria

7:36 p.m.: Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger wants to extend the response deadline for Bavarian companies for emergency corona aid until mid-November. “We receive many inquiries about the current feedback procedure for Corona emergency aid. The accountants are working at full speed. No Bavarian company should come under avoidable time pressure due to the immediate response,” said the Free Voter boss on Friday of the German Press Agency in Munich. Many companies that received emergency aid during the pandemic have not yet participated in the ongoing feedback process.

Actually, the re-registration period ends on June 30th. “After Pentecost we have to make a final decision in the coalition. There are already positive signals from the government factions in the state parliament for an extension of the deadline,” emphasized Aiwanger.

He also pointed out that the state government had already decided a few weeks ago that companies with after-tax profits of less than 30,000 euros could be exempted from repayment. The necessary applications for a waiver will be available on an online platform from the beginning of July. “In order to handle all this in a user-friendly manner, an extension of the deadline for the feedback is required. In this way, we are also increasing the scope for those companies where the economic situation is still difficult.”

The Greens in the Bavarian state parliament immediately demanded a fundamental decision by the state government in favor of the recipients of the Corona aid: “Many of those affected trusted the Free State in good faith when it said there were no repayments,” said Sanne Kurz, cultural policy spokeswoman for the parliamentary group. Throughout Bavaria, a number of those affected have signed petitions or lodged appeals. “We’re calling for clarity in the state parliament and to stop further prosecution of the approximately 250,000 people affected.”

In the first few months of the pandemic, the federal government and the Free State had paid out around 2.2 billion euros at short notice to compensate for impending liquidity bottlenecks and prevent insolvencies. When applying, companies and the self-employed estimated how severe their liquidity bottlenecks would be in the next three months. Overpaid money must be paid back.

The repayment system is controversial. It was only on Tuesday that the Munich Administrative Court confirmed the receipt of a lawsuit from a company, which is not only directed against the repayment of aid, but also against the online procedure with which reclaims are to be determined. The Mittelstandsverband BVMW also called for an immediate suspension of the feedback procedure.

RKI dashboard for Corona– Infection situation is set

Friday June 2, 2023 at 6:22 am: More than three years after the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the Covid 19 dashboard of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is to be discontinued. On (today) Friday, users can use the online offer for the last time. The dashboard was partially updated daily and gave, among other things, an overview of the reported new corona infections and deaths as well as the 7-day incidence – nationwide, for federal states and at district level.

A spokeswoman for the RKI informed the German Press Agency that in the current situation it was no longer necessary to prepare the registration data in this form. According to the information, the Corona dashboard went online in March 2020. However, the data should still be available online from Monday to Friday: in the so-called Pandemic Radar of the RKI and in the online service Github.

Another companion from the times of the pandemic has only been available to a limited extent since Thursday: the Corona-Warn-App was put into sleep mode on June 1st. Contact tracing is no longer necessary, vaccination certificates can still be used if necessary. With 48 million downloads, the warning app is one of the most popular smartphone applications in Germany.

Up to ten years in prison for millionaires Corona– Subsidy fraud

Thursday, June 1, 4:41 p.m.: According to the Hamburg Regional Court, a gang of fraudsters had more than three million euros in Corona aid paid out by the state in 2021. The court sentenced five defendants to prison terms, some of them long, on Thursday. The main defendant received ten years in prison, two other defendants seven and five years. They were found guilty of 80 counts of commercial and gang subsidy fraud. According to the public prosecutor’s office, they applied for a total of around 12.5 million euros between April and October 2021. The court ordered the confiscation of proceeds of the crime of a good three million euros.

Another defendant, who worked as an accountant for the gang, was sentenced to eight years in prison for aiding and abetting. The 48-year-old was also given a three-year professional ban. The 32-year-old wife of the main defendant also received a suspended sentence of two years for aiding and abetting. With the penalties, the court sometimes stayed well below the demands of the public prosecutor’s office. According to the presiding judge, Malte Hansen, the suspects acted intentionally, as can be seen from tapped telephone calls. The approach is likely to significantly endanger the economic order. The accused are said to have bought unprofitable shelf, sham and service companies and committed the crimes with the help of straw men.

The 34-year-old boss of the gang made statements in the process, as Hansen explained. However, he based his statement on the documents. His explanation was unconvincing and not marked by remorse. A 24-year-old co-accused admitted almost everything, but only testified in general, late and according to the documents. He didn’t want to answer questions. That didn’t help his credibility, Hansen said. He received seven years imprisonment. A 23-year-old co-accused only testified after knowledge of the file situation. The court sentenced him to five years in prison.

The court justified the high sentence of eight years for the accountant with the necessary general prevention. The penalty should have a deterrent effect. The 48-year-old held a key position. Accountants, lawyers and tax advisors can be expected to act fundamentally honestly. Only the accused woman accepted the chamber’s remorse. Therefore, the court suspended her two-year prison sentence on probation. However, the 32-year-old has to do 100 community service hours.

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