I’m guessing these prison-bound scammers are Pakistani. What is a “smoke shop” doing in the food stamp business anyway? How about if we have a law that food stamps can only be redeemed at large reputable grocery stores?
From The Record:
SACRAMENTO — The owner of a downtown Stockton smoke shop, his brother and daughter, were sentenced to federal prison for running a $2.6 million food stamp fraud scheme from the business, federal officials said today.
Ahmad Khan, 54, and his brother Mumraiz Khan, 49, on Thursday were sentenced to more than five years each for food stamp fraud and money laundering charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento said. Naheed Khan, 23, was sentenced to spend three years on probation for helping her father and uncle in the scheme, prosecutors said.
While the Smoke Shop & Snack at 435 E. Miner Ave. was authorized to redeem food stamps, in reality prosecutors said they used it as a front to run the fraudulent scheme for five and a half years.
According to prosecutors, the Smoke Shop would buy food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar. Rather than using the public assistance to buy food, prosecutors believe customers used that money to buy illegal drugs.
I have no idea how this family of Khans got into the US, but I urge everyone to start examining the E-2 Treaty Investor program as a possible source of these shop owners scamming food stamps, here. Here are the E-1 and E-2 Treaty countries. Awhile ago I did some serious searching around and learned that we have US immigration lawyers whose business it is to process the E-2 Treaty paperwork and even help the “investors” purchase convenience stores.