Oregon: More Muslims busted for food stamp fraud

Readers, here is one more in our long list of food stamp fraud cases involving immigrant-run stores where a disproportionate number involve Muslim managers and owners.

Busted! Mahmoud Tajgerdu

We follow food stamp fraud as a side interest here at RRW until such a time when some blogger-wannabe takes on the project full time.  Honestly, you could write posts daily on immigrant-run convenience store food stamp fraud and never run out of stories!

Mainstream news outlets don’t want to touch this topic with a ten foot pole! That is why we need citizen investigative journalists!

From KOIN.com:

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A Beaverton grocery store owner, his daughter and three employees have been arrested on accusations they perpetrated an elaborate food stamp fraud scheme.

According to Beaverton police, 42-year-old Mahmoud Tajgerdu would allow Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) recipients to exchange their benefits for cash at his store, Beaverton Halal Meat***and Mediterranean Groceries, located on Southwest Canyon Road.

Under the exchange, Tajgerdu would, for example, charge $125 to a food stamp user’s SNAP card in exchange for $100 in cash. Tajgerdu would then pocket the $25 difference.

At least Mahmoud wasn’t as greedy as most.  The going rate on this scam is 50 cents on the dollar.  The store clerk takes half the cash and gives the other half to the seller of benefits, which is illegal too by the way.  I’ve seen an occasional case where the seller of their welfare benefits is criminally prosecuted and frankly if we saw more of those it might have a chilling affect on the whole fraud scheme.

Negin Tajgerdu:  Busted for lying!

KOIN continued:

Beaverton police detectives and U.S. Department of Agriculture agents apprehended Tajgerdu and his daughter Tuesday, along with three employees who work at his store and a nearby 76 gas station that he owns.

Tajgerdu faces nine counts each of first-degree aggravated theft and unlawfully obtaining supplemental nutritional assistance. His daughter, 23-year-old Negin Tajgerdu, is charged with three counts of perjury.

Thirty-nine-year-old Bahman Hoshmand, 38-year-old Aziz Darakhshani and 35-year-old Rafik Korkut face multiple counts of aggravated theft and unlawfully obtaining supplemental nutritional assistance.

A Portland area shopping guide tells us this about Beaverton Halal and Tajgerdu (emphasis is mine):

Beaverton Halal

11527 SW Canyon Road, 574-2383.

Consider it the goat-butcher equivalent of an open kitchen. At Beaverton Halal, your goat is butchered while you watch. The front of the store is a half-sorted hodgepodge, with spices of various provenance arranged by dart throw down the left aisle and mega-sacks of rice stacked near the door, with sundries like honeycomb and sweet jallab syrup stored on miscellaneously stocked shelves in the store’s midsection. But the action’s in the back at the butchery, where owner Mahmoud Tajgerdu butchers goat and sheep at staggering affordability, in quantities like “quarter goat” and “half goat,” fresh from a farm in Eugene and all in accordance with Islamic law (which, for secular purposes, mostly means that it’s not pork, amphibious, carnivorous or gross.) JG.

Shopping list: The goat and mutton will be the main attractions, but heart and liver can also be found here.

Guess the Muslims in the area will need to find another goat butcher to watch.

If you suspect food stamp fraud in your neighborhood, here is the contact information for reporting your suspicions.   See something, say something!

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