These food stamp fraud stories just get better and better—you couldn’t make this stuff up! We first told you about this Mohamed on May 5th, here, but there are new revelations.
From the Grand Rapids Press:
GRAND RAPIDS – The store owner accused in a $474,000 food-stamp scheme also collected nearly $85,000 in personal food-stamp benefits since 2001, recently unsealed documents said.
Ahmed Sheik-Mohamed was indicted on a charge of food-stamp fraud.
He and his son, Mohamed Isse [bet they aren’t even related—ed] who has not been indicted, are accused of redeeming electronic benefits for cash and ineligible items at Rayan Phone Card & Grocery on Eastern Avenue SE, records filed in U.S. District Court showed.
The store is one of at least five in the area allegedly involved in such frauds since last year.
He received $84,900 for his own food stamps while ripping off customers at his store, then spent some of his own food stamps at a store two hours away. Sounds fishy!
The government also said that Sheik-Mohamed was receiving $1,381 in monthly food-stamp benefits for himself as of late 2009, when authorities conducted searches.
Since 2001, he has received around $84,900, the government said in court records.
More than $7,000 was spent at a store similar to his on the east side of state.
“Because Ahmed operates Rayan and therefore has ready access to Somali foods in Grand Rapids, he would have no reason to redeem large amounts of food stamp benefits at Abbas Phone Card and Grocery in Ypsilanti, two hours away,” special agent Travis Deters wrote in a search-warrant affidavit.
He said Sheik-Mohamed in 2007 reported that he was employed as a meat cutter at Rayan, earning $7.50 an hour while supporting a family of 10.
We learned in that first story on May 5th that Sheik-Mohamed sent some money out of the country.
I guess those ‘Welcome to Shelbyville’ filmmakers I told you about in my earlier post today would call us racist for even raising an eyebrow over this one!
Search RRW for ‘food stamp fraud’ and read dozens more posts similar to this one (although this is the first story where the perp was also receiving food stamp benefits).