Financial police raid

How fraudsters snack on the “broadband billion”

(Bild: BMF)

Black sheep among construction companies want a slice of the broadband billion: Financial police now uncovered dubious company constructions, illegal employment and wage dumping!

Ultra-fast Internet for the whole country by 2030 - that is the aim of the German government's current broadband offensive. Criminals are also trying to profit from the 1.4 billion investment package, as the financial police have now uncovered. As with the current anti-terrorism cases, the decisive tip came from colleagues in Germany.

Four companies in Lower Austria targeted
Domestic investigators immediately picked up the trail - and quickly made a find in Lower Austria. Several violations of the Aliens Employment Act and wage and social dumping were uncovered during the inspection of 34 employees from five countries: In Hollabrunn, the contract had been passed on by a company from Vienna to a Spanish subcontractor. This company employed eight Romanians on site. And illegally, as it turned out. The same picture presented itself to the financial police at a construction site in Baden.

The expansion of broadband is one of the central measures of our digitalization strategy. It creates the basis for economic progress and quality of life throughout Austria. It is therefore all the more important that we consistently prevent illegal practices that jeopardize this progress. The successful checks carried out by the financial police show that we are taking swift action here. We are putting a stop to those fraudsters who want to illegally enrich themselves in important location-relevant projects

Finanzminister Magnus Brunner

Bild: Zwefo

Dubious (sub)company constructs
Of twelve employees of a German company that laid cables in Wiener Neustadt, only five were properly registered with the health insurance fund. In St. Pölten, two Swedish companies were found to be in breach of the Wage Dumping Act. It was striking that all orders were passed on via several subcontractors. "These intermediary companies were often not even operationally active," it says.

Tyrolean construction site is on ice
In Tyrol, a construction site had to be shut down completely because none of the ten workers could produce the necessary papers. The municipality therefore put the project on ice for the time being. None of the ten workers were able to produce the necessary documents. The police were therefore called to assess their immigration status and the ten people were taken to Innsbruck for examination. The district authority finally withdrew the decision for the construction work and the construction site was shut down. Further investigations are being carried out.