The allegations are serious, the sum for a care facility with connected services is high: The mayor of the municipality of Seeg in the Ostallgäu, Markus Berktold (CSU), has been arrested on suspicion of fraud. The local politician, who is the managing director of nursing services, and a facility manager who was also arrested, are said to have billed unauthorized nursing services in the amount of 1.1 million euros – because of an alleged additional expense during the corona pandemic, which, according to the investigators’ initial findings, did not exist at all. The facility manager is also said to have embezzled 110,000 euros in company money in his favor by the end of 2021 through bogus invoices. A third suspect is said to have helped him in several cases, and she too was arrested.
On Wednesday, 50 police officers from Kempten and the surrounding area searched several properties, including the Caritas home and the town hall in Seeg, at the behest of the Bavarian Central Office for Combating Fraud and Corruption in the Health Care System (ZKG), based at the Nuremberg Public Prosecutor’s Office. This was confirmed by senior public prosecutor Matthias Held. From the point of view of the investigators, initial findings on site showed that the requirements for an arrest warrant also exist against the mayor. The investigators secured numerous documents, including digital ones, which now have to be evaluated. “We’re still at the beginning of the investigation,” says Held. The ZKG became active on the basis of information from a company employee.
Mayor Berktold appears on the municipality’s website as the contact person for the local Caritas Foundation, he is the managing director of various companies in the care facility and associated services. Between May 2020 and June 2022, according to the allegations, he is said to have repeatedly created bogus invoices together with the facility manager and thus wrongly billed the responsible care insurance fund for the reimbursement of corona-related additional expenses. The funds come from the care rescue package created because of the pandemic. During the searches, the ZKG seized objects and accounts.
There has been criticism of the politician’s accumulation of offices for a long time
the Allgäu newspaper had reported several times in the summer and in December about turbulence in the care facility in the village – also from harsh criticism of the mayor, whom the residents of Seeg accused, among other things, of accumulating offices. Accordingly, Berktold’s critics called for more transparent communication, they were concerned about the future of the Caritas home.
There has long been criticism of the many offices of Mayor Markus Berktold (CSU) in Seeg.
(Photo: Municipality of Seeg)
There had been massive restructuring in the house in recent years. At a December briefing, Berktold said these changes were necessary: The house was in the red. Shortly before Christmas, the mayor announced that in addition to outpatient communities, a new building with day care and barrier-free apartments should be built, and an investor should also get involved. According to a report in the local newspaper, the pastor announced at the said information event on the future of the home that Theo Waigel, former CSU finance minister and resident of Seeg, should become a member of the Caritas association and advise the board.
Help for the board will now be urgently needed; a potential investor usually also jumps off when there are such serious allegations of care fraud. The Bavarian regional association of the Caritas Association Germany is shocked by the allegations. A spokesman said that Caritas was providing its members and old people’s homes with detailed information on how to bill and who to contact – especially during the pandemic with numerous special billing modalities. However, the accounts would be prepared on site, the state association had no way of checking this. During Corona there was actually considerable additional work: for staff because of the necessary tests, for masks, locks and isolation measures, for example. “Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the possibility that there are black sheep who then exploit something like this,” says the spokesman.
The central office for combating fraud and corruption in the healthcare system accuses the mayor and the head of the facility of having acted “commercially”. For two years, the ZKG has been investigating suspects from the healthcare sector. Recently, the 14 public prosecutors have been increasingly concerned with fraud in corona test centers; but they also have doctors and physiotherapists in their sights. So far, allegations against nursing services have only made up nine percent of all investigations. According to Chief Public Prosecutor Held, however, the level of damage often involved in nursing care is remarkable.