I have a whole bunch of stuff on food stamp fraud I will try to post tomorrow, but since this just happened, I’m getting it up right away. Three indicted in food stamp rip off of $857,000 from taxpayers.
From Bradenton.com:
TAMPA — Three owners of a Bradenton convenience store defrauded the federal government out of $857,000 by exchanging cash for food stamp benefits, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Tampa.
The three owners — Majdi A. Juma, 29; Hikmat A. Juma, 38; and Nidal Juma, 40 — have been indicted by a grand jury on food stamp fraud and wire fraud, a release from U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill’s office said.
[….]
According to the indict- ment, the Jumas unlaw- fully purchased SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits from individual recipients … “in exchange for cash and for which SCFM charged the recipient a substantial commission or fee.”
The practice is common- ly known as “discounting” or “cash-back,” the news release said, and the Jumas charged a fee of about 50 percent.
All three Jumas face wire fraud charges and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and food stamp fraud charges.
[….]
If convicted of all charges they face between 130 and 155 years each in prison, the release said.
The article tells us ICE was involved in the bust, so there must be an immigration angle. Based on their names, they are likely East Africans. Guess they were sending money out of the country too.
Maybe it would be better just to deport them to Africa and forget about keeping them in jail for years at more taxpayer expense.
For more on food stamp fraud here at RRW use our search function and type in ‘food stamp fraud.’ You will see we have dozens of posts on the subject.