Oklahoma food stamp fraud bust reminds me…

….that most of these investigations are the result of just regular folks observing what they believe is illegal activity involving food stamp scams and tipping off local authorities who then bring in the federal big guns.

This is the story in the Sequoyah County Times from Sallisaw, OK:

Two brothers were arrested and after a state and local investigation shut down their alleged food stamp trafficking and illegal drug distribution site Wednesday.

Vishal Sabharwal, 37, and Vivek Sabharwal, 43, were arrested after authorities seized documents and drugs from the Pick-N-Go convenience store on the 700 block of South Wheeler Avenue in Sallisaw.

Shaloa Edwards, Sallisaw police chief, said Sallisaw police began the investigation months ago after they received a tip regarding the illegal trafficking of food stamps and possible K2 sales.

[…]

Edwards said he believes the brothers were taking the food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar then collecting the food stamp cards full value.

The perps here, the Sabharwal brothers, are Indians or Pakistanis.   I’m guessing they got into the country and into the business of trading in food stamps through the E-2 Treaty Investor Program.   And, I do believe the enormous jump in the use of food stamps in the US, reported frequently by the mainstream media, is not just that more Americans are hungry, I just think more Americans and immigrants have figured out how to get cold hard cash out of the food stamp program—it’s kind of a backdoor redistribution of wealth from you (taxpayers) to these criminals.

Oh, and one more thing, we are seeing more frequently that those who sold their right to purchase food for the cash are now being arrested as well, see this recent story about Florida “operation easy money.”

This is one of those subjects, food stamp fraud, I wish we had made a separate category for because we have gotten so many stories on the subject.  Here is just one from October about more busts in Oklahoma.

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