And, besides the one Hispanic—Gloria Garcia—those charged include Ahmed, Shoiab, Yousif, and Mufid!
From Lohud.com:
The owners of three Yonkers groceries and two of their employees have been charged in a scheme to exchange more than $1.2 million in food stamps for cash.
Prosecutors, who began investigating some of the people as early as 2011, said the scheme has persisted for years at the three stores. Employees at the stores — two of which are in downtrodden sections of the city — would overcharge customers’ electronic benefit cards and then give the customers the cash while pocketing some of the money for themselves.
At 42 Post Deli Grocery on Post Street, prosecutors said, this meant the store owner and employee would keep about 50 percent of the cash; other stores kept smaller amounts.
These crooks are not always the brightest bulbs so one wonders how these young Middle Eastern or African men have been able to acquire small stores throughout America—who is helping them?
Why do I say they aren’t that bright, the feds only need to look at how much food stamp redemption goes on in comparable stores and that is what they did here.
At Sam Deli on Palisade Avenue investigators calculated that the store authorized $292,819 in benefits redemptions from March 2012 to February 2013, while similar stores redeemed as little as $8,433. Prosecutors said Gloria Garcia, 51, the owner of a third grocery, exchanged more than $800,000 in federal benefits for cash.
So where do these perps come from? Like most of these food stamp fraud cases, immigration status is not mentioned.
Four of those charged, including Garcia, were taken into custody Tuesday and arraigned in U.S. District Court in White Plains. The other three were identified as Ahmed Alsamet, 35, the owner of Sam Deli, and Shoiab Ahmed, 22, an employee there, who are accused of exchanging upwards of $250,000 in food stamps for cash; as well as Yousif Kassim, 30, the owner of 42 Post.
Kassim is charged along with Mufid Kassem, 36, an employee at 42 Post. Both are accused of exchanging food stamps for more than $200,000 in cash. Kassem remains at large.
Food stamp fraud reporting is a side interest here at RRW, click here for probably a hundred similar stories going back to 2008. So far, the mainstream media has refused to make any connection between these scams and ‘immigrant (hah!) entrepreneurs.’
Go here for information on how to report suspected food stamp fraud where you live.