Foreigner suspected of Covid-19 compensation fraud

The Prague police have accused a 40-year-old foreigner of having repeatedly unlawfully drawn a compensation subsidy designed for sole traders afflicted by the coronavirus crisis, their spokesman Jan Rybansky told the media on Tuesday. The suspect has fraudulently drawn almost 250,000 crowns in state subsidies and attempted to draw further 400,000 crowns. The foreigner, who has also been investigated for a similar fraud in the Rokycany district, west Bohemia, may face up to ten years in prison, if found guilty, Rybansky said. Since June, the man presented himself under a false identity and applied for the subsidy on behalf of as many as 24 people after finding the necessary information about them in the publicly available register of companies.