German Police Launch Investigation into Fake Teeth Scandal

Police in Wuppertal have launched an investigation into a company in Mülheim an der Ruhr which they suspect has defrauded health insurance companies and patients of millions of euros. The company allegedly involved dentists in a scam where they fitted patients with cheap false teeth, bridges and crowns from South-East Asia but charged them -- and thereby usually also the health insurers -- for much more expensive ones purported to have been made in Germany. The main state health insurer, AOK, estimates the damage of the fraud at 50 million euros ($50.1 million). The daily newspaper "Financial Times Deutschland" reported in its Wednesday issue that some 900 dentists nationwide were mixed up in the illegal business.