Investigators have only recouped about CHF 6,000 from Covid test scammers, but they are hoping a case will bring in 1.6 million Swiss francs.
About 70% of Switzerland has had at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine — a vaccine that has been deemed unnecessary for most Swiss residents.
Switzerland’s Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) announced this week that it is cracking down on people who conned the government and Swiss taxpayers out of roughly 20 million Swiss francs through a scam using free Covid tests.
From 2020 through the end of 2022, Switzerland carried out about 23 million free antigen and PCR covid tests. In 2022 the auditors announced that they had discovered two gaps in the system which helped fraud go unnoticed.
First, Swiss health insurers did not send statements to all those tested – making it difficult for auditors to discern real tests from counterfeit ones. And second, invoices did not indicate in which canton the tests had been carried out.
The FOPH says scammers – some of whom worked in the testing centers or with doctors – used these two weaknesses to send out fake bills to health insurers. The fraudsters who used actual testing centers to write up false bills are the most difficult to identify, the FOPH says.
Some 15 FOPH and outside investigators have five years to track down the scammers. In December they reported that they had identified 30 possible cases of serious fraud, but had only recovered CHF6,000.
Swiss taxpayers have footed a CHF2.7 billion bill for free Covid tests.
On March 10, the FOPH announced it had opened a criminal case against a conman who allegedly owes CHF1.6 million.
Swiss taxpayers have paid about CHF2.7 billion for free tests over 2020 and 2021, alone. Free Covid testing in Switzerland ended on January 1, 2023. Later that month, the President of Switzerland’s Vaccination Commission announced that the Covid vaccine is not effective for most Swiss people.
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