The company cooperated with several Viennese pharmacies from spring 2022 and carried out antigen and PCR tests, with the data and tests being sent to a laboratory for evaluation. Because 71,128 PCR tests were billed but were in fact pure fake, the former managing director was presented with the bill at the regional court on Monday.
Wife was acquitted
The 40-year-old was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for serious commercial fraud, and his 38-year-old cousin, who had been in charge of IT, was sentenced to 21 months as an accomplice, seven of which were in prison. The company boss’s 42-year-old wife was acquitted. All decisions are not legally binding.
The fraud was carried out in a very creative way. Lists of people who were supposedly tested were presented and billed, with the addresses and social security numbers of those who were supposedly tested being completely fictitious. The test tubes that were analyzed in a laboratory contained fake samples. In some cases, the company boss himself is said to have gargled and spat into the tubes.
More than 700,000 euros in damage
According to the indictment, this caused damage of more than 700,000 euros to the city of Vienna and the republic between April 2022 and the end of March 2023. The company boss has now pleaded guilty to a sum of between 300,000 and 400,000 euros before a jury. “I am very, very sorry. I promise you, I will never do anything like this again,” he confessed to a jury on Monday afternoon. He will also no longer run a company in the future and now wants to “be a role model for my children.”
The co-accused cousin, who had kept the fake lists of names, confessed in full. “Everything is true as it is stated in the indictment,” confirmed his defense attorney Philipp Wolm. Due to his remorseful responsibility from the beginning of the Federal Criminal Police Office’s investigation, the 38-year-old received a partially suspended prison sentence and now has a good chance of being able to serve the unconditional part of his sentence under electronically monitored house arrest.
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Source: Nachrichten
