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Dead People doled out $2.6 billion worth of food stamps

Posted: Jan 15, 2017

inspector general reviewed billions of transactions through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps. It found that thousands of stores authorized to accept food stamps were using the Social Security numbers of deceased persons. An audit released Thursday found instances of potential fraud where the Food and Nutrition Service issued food stamps through stores that claimed to be owned by children or the dead. “We found that 3,394 authorized SNAP retailers (retailers) used Social Security Numbers (SSN) that matched SSNs of deceased people,” the inspector general said. “Additionally, 193 retailers listed owners who were not at least 18 years of age. While FNS did have some controls to edit or verify SNAP retail owner information, these controls were not adequate to ensure owner information accuracy.” … ;

Some kind of massive fraud is going on here. - NM

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There are only 40 investigators for about 200,000 retailers nationwide, - so the abuse is really much worse.

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Also it's a form of corporate welfare.

Food stamp programs guarantee large corporations consistent cash flow, creating a powerful corporate lobbying group that seeks to prevent cuts or changes to SNAP. For example, J.P. Morgan has contracts for Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards used for SNAP in half the states and has spent millions of dollars lobbying Congress. In addition, large food retailers like Kroger and Walmart gain large shares of SNAP purchases. In some states, Walmart captures upwards to 50 percent of all SNAP purchases. These companies now have a vested interest in opposing any attempts to decrease food stamp enrollment.

The program also emphasizes enrollment over need.

Another issue worth mentioning is what people are allowed to buy with food stamps. Things like candy and soda have absolutely no nutritional value and yet are able to be paid for with government assistance. As someone who works at a retail store that accepts food stamps I'd say at least 75% if not a much higher number of items purchased with food stamps are items of this nature. Food stamps are being handed out like candy, and the being used to buy exactly that, to people who obviously don't need them for survival but are simply abusing the system.

eatdrinkpolitics.com

Fake news. Retailers do not get issued food stamps and...sm - VTMT

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have no access to SS numbers of people using their benefits. There is fraud by retailers where money is given in exchange for food stamps but occurs less often now that cards are used instead of paper.

Really? Here's one story for starters. Baltimore, Maryland - A federal jury convicted Abdulmalik

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Abdulla, age 37, and Ahmed Mohssen, age 54, both of Baltimore, today on charges of food stamp fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash.

The convictions were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William G. Squires, Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, Northeast Region; and Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Retailers who trade food stamp credits for cash are on notice that federal authorities are on their trail,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Taxpayers fund the program to provide food for needy recipients, not to turn retail store cash registers into ATM machines.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as the Food Stamp Program, is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), together with state agencies. The program funds low-income individuals to allow them to obtain a more nutritious diet. In Maryland, the program provides eligible individuals with an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card called the Independence Card, which operates like a debit card. Recipients use the EBT card to purchase approved food items from participating retailers.

Retailers must apply to and be approved by FNS to participate in the program. Authorized retailers use a point-of-sale terminal that checks the EBT card information and deducts the cash value of the purchase from the customer’s SNAP benefit balance. SNAP reimbursements are paid to retailers through electronic funds transfers. Retailers bill the government in return for providing approved food items. SNAP retailers, including the defendants, receive instruction regarding the requirements and regulations of the food stamp program, such as that only eligible food items can be exchanged for EBT benefits and that a retailer may never exchange EBT benefits for cash or non-food items.

The evidence presented at the four day trial showed that the defendants, who operated Sam’s NY Grocery, a convenience store on North Milton Street in Baltimore, received over $1.5 million in federal payments for transactions in which they did not provide any food, but split the proceeds with food stamp recipients. According to testimony at trial, the defendants exchanged EBT benefits for cash, typically paying half the value of the EBT benefits in cash and keeping the rest for themselves. The testimony at trial also showed that the defendants sold packs of cigarettes to food stamp recipients using their EBT card at twice the value they would normally sell a pack of cigarettes. As a result of the unlawful transactions, the defendants obtained more than $1.5 million in EBT deposits for transactions in which the store did not provide food.

Abdulla and Mohssen face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each of seven counts of wire fraud, and a maximum of five years in prison for each of four counts of food stamp fraud. U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for the defendants on November 14, 2014, at 10:00 a.m.

In separate cases, the 10 convenience store owners or operators indicted in September 2013 in connection with schemes to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash have pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud and/or wire fraud. Abdullah Aljaradi, age 52, and Ahmed Ayedh Al-Jabrati, age 56, both citizens of Yemen residing in Baltimore, were each sentenced to two years in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $1.2 million. Jung Kim, age 52, of Ellicott City, Maryland, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and ordered to forfeit $95,453.50 and pay restitution of $205,000. Amara Cisse, age 51, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $654,349.24, and his wife, Fanta Keita was sentenced to two months in prison. John Cunningham, age 55, of Baltimore, was sentenced to two years in prison. Retailer Hyung Cho, age 40, was sentenced to 38 months in prison, and his mother Dae Cho, age 67, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Chos were also ordered to forfeit $371,439.21 and pay restitution of $1.4 million. Abdo Mohamed Nagi, age 54, a citizen of Yemen residing in Baltimore, and Kim Man Chu, age 39, of Rosedale, Maryland, pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced on September 5 and October 10, 2014, respectively, each at 10:00 a.m.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the USDA Office of Inspector General and FBI for their work in the investigation. U.S. Attorney Rosenstein expressed appreciation to Secretary Ted Dallas and the Maryland Department of Human Resources, as well as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - Office of Fraud Detection and National Security for their assistance in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorneys David I Sharfstein and Leo J. Wise, who are prosecuting the case.

These are criminals, not legit food stamp recipients. - nm

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That's what the article is about. Retailers and fraud. - NM

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Retailers trafficking in SNAP benefits. SNAP (food stamp) - EBT trafficking is a growing trend in

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Florida. It involves both SNAP benefit recipients and the owners and employees of EBT authorized retail stores. Trafficking occurs when SNAP benefits are exchanged for cash or for other consideration (narcotics, firearms, ammunition or explosives, for example) at retail stores through the use of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards. SNAP trafficking is a cash business that spawns other crimes within a community including: drugs, prostitution and illegal gambling.

Citizens who are buying or selling EBT cards are also trafficking. Purchasing food with SNAP benefits with the intent to sell the food or exchange the food for cash or other consideration is also considered trafficking. With the increased use of social networking, the open selling of EBT cards by advertising them on social networking sites or on public listings such as Craigslist and EBay is also on the rise.

SNAP trafficking is a felony in Florida!

It is a growing trend that fuels criminal activity and endangers our communities. Store owners and employees are getting rich exploiting a program put in place to help Florida’s families in need. That’s why local, state and federal law enforcement agencies are stepping up to the plate to combat this crime and all the problems it plagues our communities with.

Retailres sentenced in food stamp fraud schem.e. Hauppauge, NY - New York Attorney General

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Eric T. Schneiderman, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, announced the sentencing of two Long Island store owners who spent years stealing over $1.6 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)

Ravinder Parkash, 60, of Riverhead, N.Y., stole more than $668,000 from the USDA by illegally exchanging SNAP (formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) benefits for cash and submitting fraudulent transactions for payment at his Riverhead convenience store. Sajjad Rashid, 43, of Rocky Point, an owner and manager of Mastic Supermarket, orchestrated a similar multiyear fraud scheme in which he illegally traded cash for almost $1 million in SNAP benefits.

Parkash and Rashid were each sentenced today in Suffolk County Supreme Court by Justice John B. Collins. Parkash was sentenced to 1-1/3 to 4 years in state prison and ordered to pay restitution in an amount of $566,011.49. Rashid was sentenced to 2-1/2 to 7-1/2 years in state prison and ordered to pay restitution of $974,619. These convictions are the result of a multiyear investigation into SNAP fraud in Suffolk County, New York, initiated by the USDA and the Attorney General’s Criminal Enforcement and Financial Crimes Bureau.

“Both of these schemes not only ripped off taxpayers, but also the many New Yorkers in need who depend on food-stamp benefits, specifically those harmed by Hurricane Sandy,” Schneiderman said. “My office will continue to take aggressive action against SNAP trafficking, including pursuing criminal charges and prison time.”

The Attorney General’s investigations revealed that Parkash and Rashid both engaged in fraud known as “SNAP trafficking.” In a SNAP-trafficking scheme, the vendor conspires with individual SNAP recipients to ring up purported grocery sales, but no goods are actually sold. Instead, the shop owner or employee gives 50% of the sales price to the SNAP recipients in cash and keeps the other 50% for themselves. The USDA is then charged the full value of these phony transactions.

The evidence in both cases showed that on hundreds of occasions, SNAP recipients entered the Suffolk County convenience stores and presented their SNAP benefit cards to the defendants at the registers. The defendants rang up sham purchases and gave 50% of the sales price, in cash, to the SNAP recipients. The USDA then paid Parkash and Rashid the full value of the phony transactions, and the defendants pocketed the difference.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the USDA provided emergency benefits to all SNAP recipients in affected areas, including Suffolk County, without regard to need. Dozens of SNAP recipients exchanged these Sandy benefits for cash with Parkash and Rashid.

Between April 2010 and May 2013, Parkash conspired with his wife Prabha Rani, 59, and his corporation, Shivani Enterprises Inc. in Riverhead, N.Y., to use the Gulf-branded gas station and convenience store to exchange SNAP benefits for cash. Parkash then laundered the proceeds of his illegal scheme by using a bank account set up to process New York State Lottery sales at the store. On Jan. 12, 2015, Parkash and Shivani Enterprises pleaded guilty to all counts of the indictment, including grand larceny in the second degree, money laundering in the second degree and conspiracy. Prabha Rani also pleaded guilty to the indictment for her role in the scheme, and on April 17, 2015, she received a 60-day jail sentence.

From at least March 2012 to June 2014, Rashid led a ring of corrupt store owners and clerks at Mastic Supermarket Corp. in Mastic, N.Y., who rang up nearly a $1 million dollars in phony food-stamp transactions at taxpayer expense. Rashid, co-owner and manager of Mastic Supermarket Corp., which operated under the name “Shop With Us Quality Foods,” conspired with co-owner Manjeet Chadha and clerk Haricharan Malhotra to fraudulently exchange food stamps for cash. On March 12, 2015, Rashid pleaded guilty to grand larceny in the second degree, among other charges. Malhotra and Chadha also pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme; Malhotra was sentenced to 1-1/3 to 4 years in prison and Chadha to 840 hours of community service.

In addition to the shop owners and employees, 30 SNAP recipients charged in the Attorney General’s indictments have pleaded guilty to the crime of misuse of food stamps.

This article is true, just a poorly written headline. - Food stamps are typically valid for

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12 months. Taking into consideration that it takes a month or two to turn them off when you expire or die....yeah, there could be a lot of these food stamps around and being used by dead folks. I don’t see this being fixed unless you flipped everyone over to some credit-card type operation.

There is a credit card system in my state. You need a pin# to complete - a transaction. nm

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I think it should be administered by the states anyway. - Currently SNAP comes completely

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from the fed govt. There are about 18 different programs.

A report compiled by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) stated that, “the 18 food assistance programs show signs of program overlap, which can create unnecessary work and lead to inefficient use of resources.” Administrative costs equal about $5.5 billion per year, or about 10 percent of the value of food stamps distributed.

The Government Accountability Office reports that despite great progress, “the amount of SNAP benefits paid in error is substantial, totaling about $2.2 billion in 2009.” Other food programs are worse. The Daily Caller reports the story of Adam Sylvain, a student at George Mason University, who recounts, “My roommate told me he applied for food stamps, and they told him he qualified for $200 a month in benefits… He’s here on scholarship and he saves over $5,000 each summer in cash. A few of our other friends who were in the room also said if there were able to, they would get food stamps … They think that if they’re eligible it’s the government’s fault, so they might as well.” Stories like this are not uncommon. Nor is the misuse of food stamp money by retailers or consumers. In fact, there are only 40 investigators for over 193,000 retailers nationwide, making abuse hard to catch.

All this info is available on their website.

No wonder - anoldlady

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No wonder I was cut down to slightly over $50 if college kids are getting them and illegals and people who have come here bilking the government, i.e. the Indians.

I hope that we can get the fraud under control because that would help out our national debt and all. It will help if Mr. Trump makes these agencies who get all this money and end up using the money for some kind of expensive artwork like I think VA did.

It should be stipulated that they cannot spend it all up if they get notice that they will not get more money. This is where the stupid stuff comes in that all of us taxpayers pay for, art work not needed.

What's in the shopping cart of a food stamp household? - Lots of soda. What do households

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food stamps buy at the grocery store?

The answer was largely a mystery until now. The United States Department of Agriculture, which oversees the $74 billion food stamp program called SNAP, has published a detailed report that provides a glimpse into the shopping cart of the typical household that receives food stamps.

The findings show that the No. 1 purchases by SNAP households are soft drinks, which accounted for 5 percent of the dollars they spent on food. The category of ‘sweetened beverages,’ which includes fruit juices, energy drinks and sweetened teas, accounted for almost 10 percent of the dollars they spent on food. “In this sense, SNAP is a multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidy of the soda industry,” said Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “It’s pretty shocking.”

For years, dozens of cities, states and medical groups have urged changes to SNAP, or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to help improve nutrition among the 43 million poorest Americans who receive food stamps. Specifically, they have called for restrictions so that food stamps cannot be used to buy junk food or sugary soft drinks.

“This is the first time we’ve had confirmation that this massive taxpayer program is promoting all the wrong kinds of foods,” she said. “I think we now have the data to back up the policy argument that this program needs to be improved.”

But the food and beverage industries have spent millions opposing such measures, and the U.S.D.A. has denied every request, saying that selectively banning certain foods would be unfair to food stamp users and create too much red tape.

You forgot part of the article. sm - prettykitty

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SNAP households spent about 40 cents of every dollar at the grocery store on “basic items” like meat, fruits, vegetables, milk, eggs and bread. Another 40 cents of every dollar was spent on “cereal, prepared foods, dairy products, rice and beans.”

I only put snippets of the article. That's why I provided the link - if anyone wants to read the entire

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thing.

I'm frankly surprised this was in the NYT.

You mean like the painting of Donald Trump...sm - oldtimer

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that Trump Foundation donations paid for? Only American citizens are eligible for SNAP benefits and they are a tiny sliver of the federal budget. How much you get monthly depends on your income and allowed expenses.

In my state there is a work requirement too for those ages 18-59 without kids. nm NM - prettykitty

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It is that way in most states. For way too many years...sm - oldtimer

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people have been buying into the myth that welfare moms are sitting around watching soap operas and eating lobster and bon bons. Don't be like those people.

We should get rid of the SNAP and EBT cards with potential for fraud - and instead hand out suplus cheese,

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powdered milk, bags of beans, cans of Spam and other things like this to the needy at the welfare offices like we used to do.

We would save hundreds of billions of dollars and the genuinely poor would still get fed.

This would stop the fraud of "food stamps" in more ways than one.

it would make economic sense to reestablish work houses - alms for the poor - nm

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How kind of you! We can create a whole new class.... - sm

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of women and their children in the work house, kind of like a prison. Most families that receive SNAP benefits work.

It's not just women and children who get food stamps. - Under Obama, 10.7 million more

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people are on food stamps.

The amount of stamps someone receives SHOULD be - divided by the food groups and

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no more than a certain percentage can be spent on any one of them. Any and all junk food should be eliminated from the program. Personally I feel the program of issuing EBT cards should be replaced with food pantries where only bare essentials are distributed.

Don’t like your choices?

As a poor person myself, I'm guilty of buying - more junk food than healthy - SM

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food because I have to stretch out what I can buy with the little bit of money I get. Fresh veggies, for example, may look cheap initially, but they spoil quickly, especially if your power has been turned off. Unless you can go to the store every day for fresh produce, much of it goes to waste. Among packaged microwave dinners, the unhealthy ones are cheap - 89 to 99 cents at my Grocery Outlet. However, the healthy ones are too expensive, unless I want to only eat every other day.

Don't judge people until you've walked in their shoes.

I buy fresh veggies and fruits. What price can you put on your health? - My hemoglobin A1c has come down

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and I have cut my medicine in half.

How very nice that you can. I live in a food desert. - nm

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You can order food, including fresh foods, online. - nm

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xx

At a premium, and pay thru the nose to have - it delivered.

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Can you grow some of your vegetables? I do. - nm

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Frozen veggies are almost as good as fresh. They are also - cheap. A bag of apples or celery

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can be cut up and eaten with peanut butter, a good source of protein. This is what I do. I also drink protein powder as a source of protein.

I also eat a lot of canned tuna. It's cheap at Dollar General. You can mix - it with macaroni and some frozen

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peas and have a complete inexpensive meal.

These retailers are ripping off the system. The food stamp - program comes out of the US Agriculture Dept

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and that money could be used by farmers for other things.

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