The first case I have today is from Reno, Nevada where a 30-year-old “college student” was busted for both food stamp fraud and for selling bath salts to infidels (well, the story didn’t use that word of course). His name is Asowadur Khan (a common name in food stamp fraud circles). The convenience store con-man in Hagerstown, Maryland who did time for similar food stamp trafficking fraud (and is back running his store now) and whose case in 2008 got me started on this hobby is Mohammad Khan.
By the way, I don’t know why it was necessary to identify the Reno Khan as a college student, other than perhaps he is here on a student visa (another scam for another day and another blog).
For new readers: Following immigrant food stamp scams is a side interest of mine—a hobby! I’m still looking for an enterprising blogger wannabe to take this subject on full time! To learn more, just type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function.
From RGC.com:
A local college student has surrendered to federal authorities to begin serving a six-month prison term related to selling illegal bath salts out of his family’s Reno liquor store and engaging in food stamp fraud at the business.
Nevada U.S. Chief District Court Judge Robert C. Jones sentenced Asowadur Khan, 30, in October. Jones ordered Khan to pay $120,000 in restitution for the money he scammed from the government in the food stamp fraud between 2009 and 2011. [$120,000 is chump change in food stamp fraud circles, but I guess its the combo of drug sales and ripping off the taxpayer that got him nailed—ed]
Khan was arrested in February during an undercover investigation by Drug Enforcement Administration investigators at Nahar Food and Discount Liquor, 600 South Virginia St. Khan owned the store with family members. [Ever wonder why so many small grocery stores/convenience stores are run by immigrants—they know the racket and they get into the US on “investor” visas—ed]
Sentenced to six months, then probation, community service, but no deportation:
During the DEA investigation, authorities learned that Khan had been using customers’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s Electronic Benefit Transfer debit cards to sell items with little or no SNAP eligible merchandise. He then used the debit cards to credit a bank account used by his family’s store to steal $120,000 from the government, the guilty plea said.
Following his prison release, Jones ordered that Khan be on supervised probation for one year and follow several conditions, such as completing 40 hours of community service and being restricted from working or having any association with a business authorized to accept food stamps.
Khan had pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for unlawful possession of a controlled substance and unauthorized use of food stamps, a felony.
Court records show that Khan is a college student at University of Nevada, Reno and is ordered to pay $300 a month in child support for his infant.
What do you want to bet that the mother of his child is on food stamps?
Here is my second case of the day!
This is an update of a story from Waukegan, IL we posted in 2011 where Khaled and Fatima Saleh were caught red-handed with hundreds of thousands of your tax dollars in a suitcase.
Here is a bit of the arrest story. Fatima made a run for it!
Agents executed a search warrant at Sunset Market on April 26. After the search, Fatima Saleh went to her apartment and agents observed her leaving a short time later with a suitcase and her mother, the release said.
Agents found more than $350,000 cash and more than 800 coupon vouchers for the WIC supplemental food program in the suitcase, the release said. Agents later found another $25,000 in cash in the apartment.
It is now known that the Saleh’s ripped off the US government to the tune of $850,000 in under two years and prosecutors want a whopping 2 and a half year prison sentence. This update story makes no mention of Fatima’s attempt to make a run for it!
CHICAGO (CBS) – The owners of a Waukegan grocery store have admitted to stealing nearly $850,000 from the federal food stamp program.
Next up, sentencing for Khaled Saleh and his wife, Fatima, who ran the Sunset Food Market, 1501 Sunset Ave.
Federal prosecutors are pushing for 2.5 years in prison. [Wow! long sentence! Not!—ed]
On thousands of occasions, the couple illegally provided cash to customers who made fake purchases on their LINK food stamp cards.
The store owners typically split every dollar 50-50 with the customers — and kept the rest as profit, prosecutors said. [For new readers this is the basic scam, there are various other splits from time to time, but 50-50 is the standard practice–ed]
Of course, no mention of deportation in this story either.
LOL! This business is Obama’s backdoor “redistribution of your wealth” taken to a whole new level.
Endnote: If someone decides to take on immigrant food stamp scamming as a project, consider correlating the scammers’ stores with the neighborhoods in which refugees are resettled or to which immigrants are generally flocking. I noticed that in Hagerstown, Khan arrived at about the same time as refugees (big users of food stamps) began arriving.