German authorities are investigating a sophisticated scheme involving numerous fraudsters, primarily originating from China, who managed to secure German passports by allegedly deceiving a federal agency. According to reporting by “Der Spiegel”, these individuals falsely claimed descent from Jewish people who were persecuted, expelled, or stripped of citizenship by the National Socialists.
Public prosecutors in Düsseldorf and the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) are currently investigating 32 individuals. While the accused people are Chinese nationals, they now reside in countries such as Cyprus, Israel, Great Britain, and the United States. The charges leveled against them include violations of the Nationality Act and document forgery. In roughly half of the cases, the German citizenship had already been granted, while the remaining suspects allegedly applied for it.
The alleged passport fraudsters exploited Article 116 of the Basic Law, which allows for the re-naturalization of NS victims and their descendants. The Federal Administrative Office in Cologne (BVA) is responsible for these so-called “reparations naturalizations.” Last year alone, the BVA received over 14,000 such applications, and it is this office that processed the documents submitted by the accused.
The fraud involved fabricating familial links to historical Nazi victims and submitting forged documents to the authorities. For instance, according to “Der Spiegel”, in one case, a Chinese national who is also accused of murder acquired a German passport. This individual was recently transferred from the US to Beijing. The documentation submitted in the applications allegedly claimed that a family with the Chinese surname Wong descended from a Jewish couple named Süßkind.
In response to inquiries, a spokesperson for the BVA stated that they do not comment on ongoing investigations. Addressing potential errors, she generally acknowledged that occasional inconsistencies sometimes arise between application details and supporting documents. She explained that such suspicious findings prompt the applicants to provide a statement, and any evidence of fraud or forgery leads to a re-examination of the relevant cases. Furthermore, the office works to identify common deceit patterns to sensitize its staff.
Public prosecutors in Düsseldorf have requested legal assistance from Israeli and Canadian authorities. The British Immigration Control Agency is also involved in the investigation. A search was carried out in London in June targeting one of the accused residing in the UK.
