Food Stamp/SNAP Fraud

One of the most fraudulent uses of food stamps is selling them in exchange for cash or other unapproved items. A recent Missouri case focuses on two individuals selling methamphetamine (definitely an unapproved item) in exchange for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Co-defendants Melanie...

Fraudsters are always chasing the pot at the end of the rainbow. (Sometimes they find a pot of government benefits and sometimes they just find a conviction.) A Worcester, Mass. plumber used his company to hide a large-scale marijuana business. (Do you get where...

A New Jersey couple is rolling the dice on a court decision as to whether their bankruptcy status protects them from having to repay the federal nutrition benefits program that prosecutors say they defrauded. Mustafa and Rahime Ozturk, both in their 30s, were charged last...

Two operators of a deli in Rochester, N.Y, supplemented their profits through food stamp fraud. Hicham Khallad and Karim Euchi let customers trade Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in exchange for cigarettes and other non-food items. (Did they think government benefits were supposed...

What’s lower than stealing candy from a baby? Two government employees guilty of Women Infants and Children (WIC) program fraud. The WIC program, which falls under the oversight of the Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), is a special supplemental nutrition program that...

It’s hard to imagine how people can steal food from the mouths of disadvantaged babies and their mothers, but it happens. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, is a $6.3...

Public assistance programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, use taxpayer dollars to help the neediest among us get through hard times. It’s part of the safety net that makes for a civilized society—something all Americans are entitled to when their income falls...

A couple who owned and operated a small convenience store in Barrigada, Guam told a judge they were just trying to help by extending credit to their customers who didn’t have enough money at the end of each month to purchase food. While they...

Some people just don’t know when to quit. A Newark, N.J., store owner had already been banned from participating in the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program when he put his grocery store in another person’s name to get back into swindling the federal program....

One of the most common food stamp fraud schemes involves retailers who conduct fraudulent transactions with food stamp beneficiaries through their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards. A Jacksonville, Florida couple followed the food stamp fraud crowd and masterminded a $257,000 scam through two convenience...