Casino Fraud: Prosecutor Prosecutes

15 months after the casino fraud became known, the public prosecutor’s office in Hof has now brought charges against the former accountant and her husband. The damage to the casino amounts to 273,000 euros.

According to Robert Steiniger, public prosecutor as group leader, the woman is said to have forged documents and debited the business account of the casino Bad Steben. Her husband was the recipient of the money. He has to answer for money laundering. The investigators are sure that he must have known about the fraud of his wife. The receipt of the large amounts of money exceeded his monthly income many times over. The damage to the casino amounts to 273,000 euros. Now the Hofer district court must decide whether it permits the complaint.

During an internal examination of the figures in November 2017, the suspicion arose that someone from his own ranks must have brought money to the site. The initial suspicion was followed by investigations by the casino management itself. Later, the public prosecutor’s office intervened. The accountant was then dismissed. Her house was searched.

“We assume that with substantial criminal energy one proceeded, said gaming house managing director Udo Braunersreuther of our newspaper in January past yearly. The investigations alone, which lasted more than a year, show that Braunersreuther thus already had a premonition of what now became officially known. It’s about a lot of money. More still: It concerns a pair, which must have proceeded so skillfully that even with regular examinations of the books for a long time nobody noticed something of the fraud.

Research by Frankenpost had made the scandal public.

The head of the casino turned after first press inquiries at that time to the public prosecutor’s office, in order to bring controlled the bomb to burst and to inform objectively, as wild rumors sprouted by the region. The management of the casino itself was quickly criticized, and there was the talk of a lack of control. The woman must have acted so skilfully according to all that is known so far, but that the numerous internal and external auditing and control mechanisms could not expose her.