A company from Upper Palatinate sold more than ten million protective masks to the Free State last spring after the start of the corona pandemic, which are said to have not met European protection standards. This has bad consequences for the two managing directors of the company from the Neumarkt area. They were arrested and placed in custody, as announced by the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor. It is being investigated on suspicion of commercial fraud in the trade in medical mouth and nose protective masks; there is a risk of escape. According to information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung a local politician. Several residential and business premises had been searched for several hours, the prosecutor said.
The proceedings of the Nuremberg-Fürth public prosecutor’s office are one of the most blatant criminal suspicions to date in the trade in corona protective masks. The fact that the accused are taken into custody is a serious process. So far, the biggest political waves have been the accusation against long-time CSU MPs Georg Nüßlein (Bundestag) and Alfred Sauter (Landtag) that they were bribed as members of parliament to sell a company a company with masks worth a good 60 million euros to the Free State Bavaria and the federal government to help. Nüßlein and Sauter reject this. In their case, this concerns FFP2 and FFP3 masks, which cost around 3.60 euros per piece on average.
The case in the Upper Palatinate involves so-called surgical masks (surgical masks), which offer less protection and are significantly cheaper. The company in question, which does not come from the health sector, bought these masks from allegedly high-quality Chinese production last spring, mostly they are green or turquoise. Between April 6 and April 23, 2020, a little more than 10.7 million of these were sent in five tranches to the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL). The LGL paid between 64 and 71 cents each; a total of almost 7.2 million euros. This can be seen from a procurement list available to SZ.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the company is said to have simply issued the certification required for this itself. This would mean that the masks would not have been medical products, but only so-called community or everyday masks. These usually filter fewer particles out of the air and thus provide poorer protection against infection with corona and other viruses. According to a spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office, the damage caused in this way is probably in the millions.
The SZ tried several times in vain to get an opinion on the two telephone numbers of the local politician. In both cases, people who did not name themselves declared that one should no longer call and hung up. Nobody could be reached on the company number, a callback was not made despite the request left on the answering machine. On request, the Bavarian Ministry of Health referred to the investigations of the public prosecutor’s office and stated that “we will be informed at the same time by the LGL of the state of affairs known there”. The LGL in turn declared that one was “injured party”. The LGL did not want to say more because of the ongoing investigations.
It remains to be seen whether the suspicion of fraud is confirmed or not. Investigations need not automatically lead to indictment, trial, or even conviction. Until a final conviction, suspects are presumed to be innocent.
What kind of masks count as surgical masks is precisely regulated in this country. Usually companies are allowed to bring the thin masks with the European CE symbol onto the market as a medical product as soon as test centers such as TÜV or Dekra have approved them according to a catalog of criteria. For this purpose, the masks are certified according to the DIN standard. Depending on the standard, a mask filters fewer (surgical mask) or more (FFP2) particles. There are no test standards for community masks – some of which are self-sewn. They must therefore not be declared as medical devices. Last spring, at the beginning of the pandemic, a special rule was added due to the great demand for masks. At that time, masks could also be tested by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM). The BfArM did not answer on Thursday whether the company from Upper Palatinate had applied for such a special permit.
Procurement processes and how they can be accelerated: That was a big topic, especially in the first few months of the corona pandemic. Masks for the mouth and nose were in short supply all over the world. Some of them were brought here in a hurry. For this, in turn, horrific sums were asked – and paid – far beyond the usual market prices. Criminals also sensed business. In September, the Traunstein criminal police uncovered a suspected fraud involving non-existent respiratory masks, the damage amount: 15 million euros. Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) and an entrepreneur from Passau, on the other hand, came across a dealer who wanted to sell them useless masks from China.