80% of COVID subsidy applications going unverified as fraud cases surge in Japan June 15, 2022 (Mainichi Japan) Japanese version A venue offering support for applying for COVID-19 subsidies targeting hard-hit businesses is seen in Tokyo's Chuo Ward on June 9, 2020. (Pool photo) TOKYO -- Numerous fraud cases have surfaced in Japan exploiting the national government's COVID-19 subsidy program to support hard-hit businesses. A family of four was arrested for allegedly swindling about 960 million yen (about $7.1 million), while a Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau employee and others fraudulently received payments totaling 200 million yen, or about $1.5 million. The Mainichi Shimbun examined the nature of the coronavirus subsidy applications, which makes them susceptible to benefit fraud. The coronavirus subsidy program distributes up to 2 million yen (about $15,000) to mid- and small-size companies whose earnings have dropped by half due to the pandemic. There is no need to return the payments, and there are no limitations regarding how they should be spent. Once applications began to be accepted on May 1, 2020, shortly after a nationwide COVID-19 state of emergency was issued in Japan, the designated website was flooded with applications, and it became temporarily difficult to access. By the deadline of February 2021, about 4.24 million applications had been made and a total of 5.5 trillion yen (about $41 billion) has been distributed. Shortly after the applications began to be accepted, fraud cases were reported across Japan. According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), a majority of them involved applications using tax return forms that reported false occupations, income and other information. There have been several cases where applicants swindled over 100 million yen in coronavirus benefits. A common method among fraudsters was to submit fake tax return forms by lying that they forgot to submit the previous year's document. There have been repeated cases of false applications using different names ブランドコピー財布  leading to a rise in financial loss from fraud. The Japanese government has demanded that businesses which were recognized as having received the benefits illicitly return the payments コピーブランドバッグ  and stated that in cases where they do not comply, it will disclose the applicant's name and address, and file criminal charges in some cases. Meanwhile, if payments are voluntarily reported and returned, the government plans to exempt the parties from criminal charges. As of May 26, 15,427 fraud cases had been reported, and a total of 16.6 billion yen, or about $120 million, had been returned. This image shows a page on the website of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry that calls on people to return coronavirus subsidy payments they fraudulently received. "People have abused the program which places its faith in the integrity of individuals ブランドコピー 安全なサイト " a senior official of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said. At the onset of the subsidy program, there were few coronavirus aid measures provided by the central government, and distributing the benefits swiftly had been a top priority. As a result, the process of screening applications was compromised. Until August 2020, applicant information, including the name, occupation and earnings, had not been verified, and the payments were made as long as businesses fulfilled the condition that their earnings had dropped to below half the previous amount. Required documents were kept to a minimum -- a copy of a tax return form and sales ledger, a driver's license, and other such material. Applicants were even allowed to submit handwritten documents as well as photos of them. Furthermore, authorities only scanned through such documents and were rarely able to check for fake material. If the names on the submitted ID and applicant form were the same, applicants were eligible to receive the payments. In response to the continuous fraud cases, a verification system was introduced in September 2020, and screening became stricter. The implementation of advanced technology capable of detecting fake items through subtle characteristics which are unidentifiable with the human eye began to be able to prevent fraudulent applications. However, about 80% of the total number of applications made prior to this were effectively accepted without verification. "Our first priority was to hand out the payments 激安コピー  and we couldn't just stop the subsidy program. This was the only thing we could do at the time," a government-affiliated individual who was involved in planning the subsidy program commented. Another government-affiliated individual pointed out, "Accepting electronic applications for the coronavirus benefits led to a rise in financial damage from fraud." Electronic applications make it easy for people to repeatedly receive fraudulent payments by changing parts of the applicant's name or phone number. Online applications also save fraudsters the cost for sending multiple application forms by postal service. The individual revealed コピーブランド  "It didn't occur to us that there may be the concern that one person would get a hold of several hundred accounts." Another cause that is believed to have weakened the government's ability to deal with benefit fraud is the issue of non-transparency regarding what body was entrusted with administrative work for the subsidies. The subsidy project was entrusted to advertising agency giant Dentsu Inc. by the general incorporated association which was originally responsible for it, and such subcontracts were repeatedly made. While the METI had not been able to grasp the reality of how applications were being accepted, there were reportedly hardly any moves from the entrusted bodies to communicate issues on the ground to the ministry. A senior economic agency official said, "We were overloaded with work to confirm the state of the program's entrustment, which led to the delay in investigating the cause of the fraud. I think that the fraud could have been prevented if we had been able to closely collaborate with the bodies entrusted with the program." It is estimated that there will increasingly be cases confirmed as fraud, with the senior official speculating that tens of thousands of cases will be reported in the end. Meanwhile, there have been voices within the government to implement a system that can both simplify the application process and impose stricter screening, but not much action is being taken to realize it, even after about two years have passed since the report of the first coronavirus benefit fraud case. (Japanese original by Yuki Takahashi, Business News Department) Font Size SML Print Go to The Mainichi Home Page Related Articles Under-30s make up over 60% of suspects in $25M COVID subsidy fraud: Japan police Japanese firms voluntarily returning illegitimately received COVID subsidies amid crackdown