After being declared dead following a 2016 car wreck, a Congolese athlete who had played professional soccer in Germany has emerged alive and well.
German prosecutor Anette Milk confirms to PEOPLE that Hiannick Kamba, 33, is not dead.
"Mr. Kamba has recently returned to Germany," Milk explains via email. "There are no reasonable doubts about his identity."
Milk adds that "an investigation into fraud is underway at the Essen public prosecutor's office against his wife. She denies the charge."
PEOPLE was unable to determine the name of Kamba's wife.
German newspaper Bild reports that Kamba’s wife is being accused of fraud after allegedly forging documents, including a death certificate, in order to collect on a life insurance policy.
According to Milk, the amount the wife allegedly received "is a low seven-digit amount (in euros)."
Neither Kamba or his wive have been charged with a crime, and it is unclear if authorities believe Kamba knew about the alleged scheme.
Kamba was a former defender for FC Schalke 04 in the German Bundesliga league. At the time of his purported death, he was playing for VfB Hüls.
The couple have a 10-year-old daughter.
Bild reports the January 2016 car crash that purportedly killed him was allegedly staged in his native Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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According to the paper, Kamba has told investigators he was with "companions" the same night, and that they "had left him during the night while on a trip to the interior of the Congo in January 2016."
He also allegedly told authorities the unnamed companions "took his papers, money and telephone."
Kamba was found to be alive in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, where he had returned to his job as a chemical technician for an energy supply company, the paper reports.
Kamba and his family fled the Congo for Germany in 1986; he was allowed to stay when the rest of his relatives were deported in 2005.
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