Overview

• Raids targeted cleaning operations in Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Berlin, Bremen, Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein.
• One location was secured by special units of the Federal Customs Administration following assessments of potential danger.
• Investigators focused on two main suspects and eleven accomplices suspected of using a Hamburg-based network of shell companies to hide true employment relationships and dodge social security contributions.
• Officers seized computers, time records, notes and invoices as evidence of a scheme that authorities estimate cost social security funds millions of euros.
• The Hamburg Public Prosecutor’s Office is leading the probe, supported by the Financial Control of Illegal Employment at the Hamburg Customs Headquarters, with criminal and administrative proceedings pending.