Month: July 2011

Arizona food stamp fraud bust: No Mohammeds so far!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is news of a food stamp fraud bust in Arizona with 18 arrests in the case!  There are no Mohammeds named (so far) and surprise, surprise we have one American name—Baker.   Long time readers know that I’ve joked that those involved in these big-money busts never seem to have good old-fashioned American names!

Just two days ago we had a bust with a twist—the Muslims were selling guns for food stamps, here !   There is a bit of information at that post about refugees and food stamps too.

From My Fox Phoenix:

PHOENIX – A 15-month, multi-agency operation has uncovered a scam that has defrauded the food stamp program of more than $700,000.

Thursday, search warrants and indictments were handed down to individuals and retailers involved in defrauding the federal food stamp program.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer stated, “We know that most recipients of public benefits play by the rules, but today’s bust proves once again that some do not. With anti-fraud efforts at DES and collaboration with state, local and federal authorities, we will continue to weed out the scammers and schemers who abuse our public trust.”

The federal food stamp program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides qualifying low-income families the ability to purchase food items with EBT cards.

Through an undercover operation, authorities determined that some retailers were participating in the illegal redemption of benefits. They were paying EBT cardholders in cash for half of the value of their food stamp benefits, then pocketing the remainder.

So far, 18 people have been indicted, and search warrants were executed at four locations Thursday — three in Phoenix and one in Mesa. The suspects are charged with counts including: unlawful use of food stamps; unlawful use of a credit card; fraudulent schemes and artifices; illegal control of an enterprise and asset forfeiture.

The Arizona Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting. Some of those indicted have not yet been taken into custody.

Here are the names released so far:

Zine Abidine Douh El Idrissi, 47
Guadalupe Gamez-Moreno, 23
Alejandro Moreno Torrs, 36
Elias Hernandez-Carreno, 32
Maria Cruz Becerra, 20
Elicia Baker, 59
Brandon Nguyen, 43
Sarhad Kasmarogi, 44
Hilal Oraha Haio, 40

In the pre-political correctness days some enterprising reporter would be investigating this WIDESPREAD immigrant food stamp fraud in hopes of winning a Pulitzer.  I’m still waiting for that investigator who will only need to type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function and will find dozens of locations across the country to build his or her case.

A reminder to commenters

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have a couple of comments lately that personally attack other commenters.  As I’ve said many times previously, I don’t care if you call me names.  Or, you can say stuff like American (liberals, rightwingers) stink or Muslims are fanatics or refugees want goodies or white Europeans are racists, or whatever.  But, I’m not posting any comments that are addressed to another person directly with a statement like “YOU are _____ (fill in with idiot, racist, xenophobe, hatemonger, etc.).”  That is usually the fallback position liberals (and occasionally others) use when shaming someone into silence hasn’t worked—they start the direct namecalling.

I may have from time to time missed some of those sorts of direct attacks, but I do try to catch them and because we have had a rash of those lately, I’m back on the warpath about it.

Oh, and we don’t talk about violence toward anyone.

If your comment hasn’t been posted and you wondered why, you might go back and re-write it with some changes.

Sounds like Obama Administration snow job on Iraqi refugee terrorists today

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is the first story (from Bloomberg) I’m seeing on the Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing today on just how those Iraqi alleged terrorists got into the US through the Refugee Program.  Sure sounds like it was a complete waste!

Obama administration officials defended policies for admitting Iraqi refugees into the U.S. at a Senate hearing on preventing terrorists from entering the country.

Programs such as granting special immigrant visas for Iraqis working on behalf of the U.S. government were intended to fulfill a “special responsibility” to these people, Janice Jacobs, assistant secretary of state for consular affairs, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Officials make “every effort to streamline” the visa process while ensuring that those who receive them “do not pose a threat to the security of the United States,” Jacobs said.

Concerns about the program were underscored by the May arrests in Kentucky of two Iraqis who had entered the U.S. through the resettlement program and were charged with conspiring to provide weapons, money and other support to al- Qaeda in Iraq.

Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, urged tougher controls in granting the special immigrant visas. He said he didn’t fault the government for “missing the needle in the haystack, but you need to make the haystack smaller. It’s hard to know who your friends are and who your foes are.”

About 58,000 Iraqi refugees have come to the U.S. since 2007, with about 30,000 still in Iraq who have been approved for resettlement, said Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and her party’s ranking member on the committee.  [possibly a few more needles in the hay stack!—ed]

I’ll see what other stories I find tomorrow.

By the way, these Special Immigrant Visas were one of the last “gifts” we got from Senator Ted Kennedy in a late night maneuver before he left to join Mary Jo (oh, that’s right he and Mary Jo are likely in different places).

New twist on food stamp fraud: buy guns with food stamps!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

New readers probably want to know what food stamp fraud has to do with refugees—-not much except that refugees use a lot of food stamps and the subject interests me.

As a matter of fact, according to the 2008 Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Report to Congress(p.93), food stamp use is at 50% (in 2008) for all refugees, but at 61% for Middle Eastern refugees.  Could they have figured out how to turn their food privileges into cold hard cash (and guns!).

Here we have several Mohammed’s indicted in Ohio for food stamp fraud—Millions of dollars worth this time!

From the Dayton Daily News:

DAYTON — A federal grand jury indicted two men on food stamp fraud and other felony charges in connection to alleged illegal trafficking activities at several Dayton businesses that resulted in police raiding those stores in May.

The indictments — unsealed last week by the U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio — show charges were filed against Mohammed Zaid, who owns A&M Meats at 1609 Gilsey Ave., and Mohammed Qaqa, an employee at Food City, 1829 Germantown St.

[….]

Al-Idu Al-Gaheem, the owner of Cup of Dreams and Five Pillars Market and a local imam, allegedly received more than $2.5 million in food stamp reimbursements from the federal government, between $890,000 and nearly $2 million of which was from “unexplained” food stamp charges, according to an IRS agent’s affidavit in support of seizing Al-Gaheem’s bank account.

New meaning for phrase guns or butter:

During a 13-month period, Qaqa, 29, is accused of selling 11 handguns to a confidential police informant while he worked at Food City. Qaqa allegedly sold the guns in exchange for $1,220 in cash and $390 worth of food stamps, according to the indictment.

For more on food stamp fraud just type those three words into our search function and you will find dozens of posts on immigrant food stamp fraud—the big stuff, turning cards into cash/sending money to the Middle East.  I’m not interested in the petty stuff.  And, my fervent hope is that one day a real investigative reporter will come on the scene who will expose the convenience store food stamp scams—how for instance are all these little stores being bought up by Middle Easterners?