Crime Fraudulent COVID testing scheme raked in 20 million JPY a day

[thomas]

At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when state-funded free testing sites were popping up all over Japan, one such centre in Kanagawa Prefecture concocted a scheme to defraud the government out of as much as 20 million JPY (~ USD 140,000) a day in subsidies. Their method: Have staff use their own saliva for the tests.

Mainichi Shimbun established that some 24 billion JPY (approx. USD 163 million) were claimed as illicit subsidy claims as of the end of June 2023. Of them, roughly 3 billion JPY had already been paid to testing site operators.

Fraudulent COVID testing scheme in Japan using staff saliva pulled in $140,000 per day - The Mainichi

TOKYO -- At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, when state-funded free testing sites were popping up all over Japan, one such center in Kanagawa P

mainichi.jp