This is an update of a story we reported here last September.
Big questions for me are: What legal immigration program allowed them to enter the country and set up these stores, participate in SNAP? Did they send the money out of the country? And, will they be deported after serving their time? This article says they can get 20 years, but in all the cases I’ve seen, crooks like these were back out running the store again within a couple of years.
Note to readers, we have been following food stamp fraud perpetrated by immigrant scammers for years as a side interest at RRW, but now we have one place to gather such stories and that is a facebook page—Diversity’s Dark Side (‘Like’ it).
From the Examiner (Hat tip: Robin):
Two foreign citizens residing in Baltimore, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to committed fraud in connection with a scheme to illegally redeem food stamp benefit in exchange for cash over three years and obtained a significant amount of money in payments for food sales that never occurred.
Abdullah Aljaradi, (52), and Ahmed Ayedh Al-Jabrati, (58), both citizens of Yemen, operated in two convenience stores of Baltimore City –Second Obama Express and D&M Deli and Grocery–, located next door to each other at 901 Harlem Avenue where the illegal transactions were committed.
According to their plea agreements and court documents, the stores participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as the Food Stamp Program. Both Aljaradi and Al-Jabrati knew that it was a violation of SNAP regulations to trade cash for SNAP benefits. Nevertheless, from October 2010 to July 2013, Aljaradi and Al-Jabrati exchanged SNAP benefits for cash at less than face value of the EBT benefits, in violation of the food stamp program rules, and kept up to 50 percent of the benefits for themselves.
[…..]
The indictment alleges that as a result of these unlawful cash transactions, Aljaradi and Al-Jabrati obtained more than $2 million in payments for food sales that never occurred.
While the Court will determine the actual amount of the financial loss for the purpose of calculating the sentencing guidelines, restitution, and forfeiture, any money judgment ordered by the Court will not be less than $259,344.15, the funds seized from the stores and from two bank accounts associated with the stores.
For our complete archive on food stamp fraud, click here.