The original U.S. Food Stamp Program, now known as SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), was created during the Great Depression to address two main issues: fighting hunger among low-income individuals and families, and dealing with surplus agricultural production. The program aimed to alleviate both problems simultaneously by providing food assistance to those in need and supporting agricultural markets by purchasing surplus crops. Retail food stores approved for participation in SNAP could sell food in exchange for SNAP benefits. Food only. These benefits may not be lawfully exchanged for cash. While the U.S. now faces a significant agricultural trade deficit, hunger among low-income individuals and families is still an issue. And SNAP benefits still can only be exchanged for food. Not cash. Yet an investigation into Capital City Family Market discovered that cash was the primary produce being exchanged.
Mervat Gharib owned Capital City Family Market in Pennsylvania, and spouse Adman Rashwan employed there. Both were engaged in a scheme to defraud SNAP in a food stamp trafficking scheme which charged the customer a significant percentage of the value of SNAP benefits in exchange for cash. The unusual number of large transactions at Capital City Family Market alerted the authorities to the possibility of fraud. And an investigation revealed that from January 2011 through June 2021, Rashwan and Gharib diverted approximately $1,091,822.05 in SNAP benefits.
From January 2014 through June 2021, Capital City Family Market received approximately $1,806,761 in SNAP benefits. Data from FNS revealed in May 2021 alone, Capital City Family Market processed 408 individual SNAP transactions totaling $96,908.46 with an average transaction amount of $238.86. In comparison, the average transaction amount during the same period for other convenience stores in Pennsylvania was $11.58. Furthermore, between November 2016 and July 2021, 24 undercover transactions occurred at Capital City Family Market during which SNAP benefits were exchanged for cash.
On May 22, 2025, Gharib and Rashwan were each sentenced to two years and nine months in prison and ordered to repay more than $1 million to the SNAP program.
Shout out to the United States Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General in this case.
Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “Harrisburg convenience store owner and ex-wife get prison for food stamps scheme” published by Fox News on May 22, 2025.
A Harrisburg convenience store owner and his ex-wife have been sentenced to prison for illegally exchanging over $1 million in SNAP food benefits for cash for over three years.
Mervat Gharib, 60, and Adam Rashwan, 63, pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to 21 months in prison on May 21. They were also ordered to repay more than $1 million to the SNAP program.
