Where is the mainstream media? Does no one see the large number of busts by the Obama Administration of the ‘mom and pop’ grocer food stamp fraud? These two are estimated to have netted nearly a half million over 5 years. Dad says he sent some money to Somalia.
From the Grand Rapids Press:
GRAND RAPIDS — The owner of Rayan Phone Card & Grocery is accused in a $474,000 food-stamp scheme, one of five such alleged frauds reported in the Grand Rapids area since last year.
Ahmed Sheikh-Mohamed, owner of the store, and his son, Mohamed Isse, are accused in a recently unsealed criminal complaint of redeeming electronic food-stamp benefits for cash, pre-paid phone cards, cologne and other unauthorized items.
The father told investigators he also redeemed $400 of his personal food-stamp benefits that were wired to Somalia, the government said in court records.
Unless these two have a lavish house and fancy cars (this article doesn’t tell us), I suspect they sent a whole lot more than $400 out of the country.
Then this is very annoying, if we knew they were already cheating in 2006 and 2007 what the heck took so long to arrest them? How much money went out of the country in those nearly 5 years?
He [special agent Travis Deters] said that the store, on Eastern Avenue SE, redeemed far more in food benefits than it sold in food. From July 2006 to June 2007, the store sold an estimated $13,680 in food, but it redeemed $138,000 in food-stamp benefits over that period, he said.
“The fact that supposed benefit redemptions actually exceed the total sales of the store suggests that a significant portion (if not all) of the business’ revenue is derived from fraud,” he wrote.
He compared food-stamp redemptions from June 2006 to November 2009 at similar stores, and “Based on these comparisons, I conservatively estimate the food stamp fraud loss attributable to the owners and operators of Rayan Phone Card & Grocery during this period alone at over $474,000.”
Meanwhile, the cost of the food stamp program to the US taxpayer is going through the roof, here.
Does no one (but a few readers here at RRW) have any curiosity about how a couple of former Somali refugees have the bucks in the first place to be buying stores?
For more information (and hey, mainstream media reporters too), type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function for dozens more stories like this one!