Ahmed and Abdulmalik busted in Baltimore food stamp fraud scheme

01/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This one was a $1.5 million rip-off of the US taxpayer.

The Baltimore Sun doesn’t say much, but here (below) is the entire FBI press release that I found informative. Note that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services was involved, so there must be an immigration angle to the case. But, of course, no mention of details regarding where these alleged crooks came from! We have our guesses! LOL! See a pattern?

For new readers this is a hobby here at RRW. See our previous report on another big bust in our home state. It is good to know that even in blue Maryland the feds are ferreting out the fraudsters.

From the FBI yesterday (highlights are mine):

BALTIMORE—Abdulmalik Abdulla, age 37, and Ahmed Mohssen, age 53, both of Baltimore, were arrested today on federal charges of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash. The criminal complaint filed today alleges that the defendants, who operate Sam’s NY grocery store on North Milton Street in Baltimore, received more than $1.5 million in federal payments for transactions in which they did not provide any food but instead split the proceeds with food stamp recipients. Federal agents arrested the defendants and executed search warrants at the store and related locations today. In separate cases, 10 defendants were charged with food stamp fraud in September 2013; four of those defendants have pleaded guilty, and the others are awaiting trial.

The arrests were announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge William G. Squires, Jr. of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General, Northeast Region; and Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Retailers who trade food stamp credits for cash are on notice that federal authorities are on their trail,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Taxpayers fund the program to provide food for needy recipients, not to turn retail store cash registers into ATMs.”

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as the Food Stamp Program, is administered by the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), together with state agencies. The program funds low-income individuals to allow them to obtain a more nutritious diet. In Maryland, the program provides eligible individuals with an electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card called the Independence Card, which operates like a debit card. Recipients use the EBT card to purchase approved food items from participating retailers.

Retailers must apply to and be approved by FNS to participate in the program. Authorized retailers use a point-of-sale terminal that checks the EBT card information and deducts the cash value of the purchase from the customer’s SNAP benefit balance. SNAP reimbursements are paid to retailers through electronic funds transfers. Retailers bill the government in return for providing approved food items. SNAP retailers, including the defendants, receive instruction regarding the requirements and regulations of the food stamp program, such as that only eligible food items can be exchanged for EBT benefits and that a retailer may never exchange EBT benefits for cash or non-food items.

The criminal complaint alleges that the defendants exchanged EBT benefits for cash, typically paying half the value of the EBT benefits in cash. As a result of unlawful cash transactions, the defendants allegedly obtained more than $1.5 million in EBT deposits for transactions in which the store did not provide food.

The defendants face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for each count of wire fraud and a maximum of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud. The defendants are expected to have initial appearances at 3:45 p.m. today in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. [Wire fraud??? Does that mean money left the country?—ed]

A criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the USDA Office of Inspector General and FBI for their work in the investigation. U.S. Attorney Rosenstein expressed appreciation to Secretary Ted Dallas and the Maryland Department of Human Resources, as well as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services-Office of Fraud Detection and National Security for their assistance in the investigation. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant United States Attorney Kathleen O. Gavin, who is prosecuting the case.

See our extensive archive of similar cases from sea to shining sea!

Related: See Washington Times Golden Hammer award earlier this month. And, from Breitbart—able-bodied people with no dependents signing up in droves—have they figured out how to use the cards for cash? I bet they have.

They are at it again! “Active Voice” promotes another immigrant propaganda film; will air on Al Jazeera

01/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Longtime readers may remember “Active Voice” as the Far Left/Open borders promoters of that propaganda film about Shelbyville, TN which portrayed local critics of the growing Somali population there as a bunch of redneck boobs who eventually saw the light and reached out with “welcoming” arms to the Africans drawn there by Tyson Foods (looking for cheap legal laborers with the help of the US State Department).

The US State Department even showed the Shelbyville film throughout Africa and Europe!

We have an extensive archive on “Welcome to Shelbyville” here. Be sure to see this post in which reporter Brian Mosely sets the record straight about how he was misled by the filmmakers and how the filmmakers/promoters demonized him and the city of Shelbyville. Mosely in 2011:

I never imagined three and a half years ago that simply telling a story honestly could lead to being demonized on national television, in a film sponsored by our own government, no less.

Active Voice propagandists working on Shelbyville strategy “prototype” in 2011.
http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/03/17/a-story-driven-web-platform-for-communities/

And, you should know about some of the wealthy people who give big bucks to Active Voice, check out this post.

This is how the Left does it! Active Voice makes or uses a ‘diversity is beautiful’ film to be shown on Al Jazeera and in your local schools, and they build a whole public relations campaign around it. Behind it all are one-worlders (Soros!) whose goal it is to eliminate borders throughout the world and to provide slave laborers to their big business buddies as a side benefit.

Here is an idea, let’s make a film about the brutal Utah murder case and build a PR campaign around it! We could call it Beware immigrant rapists, killers and crooks among us! Time for us to tell “stories” too! Our message would be to strengthen our sovereignty and preserve our culture by making it more difficult to get access to America.

Speaking of crooks, I’ve got another juicy immigrant food stamp fraud story to get to this morning.

Utah murder trial ends with guilty verdict for Burmese Muslim refugee

01/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It was a trial that riveted readers of The Salt Lake Tribune for the last couple of weeks, but barely made news outside of Utah. Esar Met, a Burmese Muslim man, was arrested in 2008 for the brutal sexual assault and murder of a 7-year-old Burmese girl in their Salt Lake City apartment building. A jury found him guilty yesterday.

Met had only been in the US one month and had been assigned to live in a building filled with fellow Burmese, but they were all Christians and roommates described the tension that created among them. They had lived in separate parts of the camp in Thailand.

Hser Ner Moo’s father Cartoon Wah (right) said after the verdict: “My only daughter is still no more.”
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=22985680

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

He lured the child with games and treats. He made her laugh, helped her feel safe and welcome in the depths of his basement home.

But on March 31, 2008, a jury ruled Friday, kindness turned to violence as Esar Met sexually assaulted, beat and killed 7-year-old Hser Ner Moo.

Jurors entered the courtroom Friday after more than five hours of deliberation looking haggard and spent. They had sat through nine days of testimony, 41 witnesses and more than two hours of closing arguments that morning.

Two female jurors held tissues at the ready. Their eyes looked as if they had already been crying.

In the gallery, packed with friends and family of the young victim, a tense silence filled the air, punctuated only by the quiet sobs of Pearlly Wa — the mother who lost her only daughter nearly six years ago.

Met was convicted of child kidnapping and aggravated murder, both first-degree felonies that could land the 27-year-old Burmese refugee in prison for the rest of his life.

[….]

He had been in the country just one month, and would spend the next six years behind bars awaiting trial.

He could get 20 years to life when he is sentenced in May. Scary thought that he could ever be released. And, too bad for Utah taxpayers, maybe they should appeal to Congress for an extra stipend to pay for his trial and for the next 20 years of his life since it was the federal government—the US State Department and its contractors (Catholic Charities?)—that dumped him in Utah.

By the way, over the years The Salt Lake Tribune has acted like a real investigative news outlet, even sending a reporter to Thailand back in 2008. One thing reporter Julia Lyon learned is that Met was considered “not right” in the camp, so who decided he would be a good citizen of America?

For new readers, all of our previous coverage of the case, going back years, may be found by clicking here.

Defense rests without calling a witness in Utah refugee murder trial

01/17/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Final arguments will be today.

US State Department brings diversity to Utah. Esar Met at trial in Salt Lake City.
http://www.capitalbay.com/news/454208-hser-ner-moo-burmese-girl-7-killed-in-utah-died-a-painful-death.html

For new readers, see our previous posts on the trial of Burmese Muslim, Esar Met, who is accused of murdering a 7-year-old Burmese Karen Christian girl in the apartment building where both were resettled by the US State Department and its Utah contractors.

Apparently, the defense could find no one to testify on Met’s behalf. Gee, no one from the State Department could come and attest to his character and say how they had chosen a sane and decent man to give a new life to in America?

From the The Salt Lake Tribune:

Only one man knows where Esar Met was when a 7-year-old girl took her last breath.

Was he standing over her, as prosecutors have alleged, having brutally assaulted and slain Hser Ner Moo in the basement of his South Salt Lake home?

Or was he somewhere else, as defense attorneys have said? Gone to a bus, perhaps, attempting to navigate unfamiliar routes to the home of his aunt and uncle in Cottonwood Heights.

Only Met can answer these questions.

But on the eighth day of his trial, Met declined to testify in his own defense.

Speaking through a Burmese interpreter Thursday, Met invoked his right to remain silent, telling an 11-person jury he would not take the stand to answer to the charges against him: first-degree felony child kidnapping and aggravated murder.

Defense attorneys rested their case before 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton without calling a single witness.

If found guilty, there is no death penalty for Met because he couldn’t understand English, he would likely spend the rest of his life being cared for by the taxpayers of “welcoming” Utah. A lesson in diversity for prison guards? Halal food? Special prayer times?

Yonkers, NY: food stamp fraud heist in 3 convenience stores nets $1.2 million

01/16/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, besides the one Hispanic—Gloria Garcia—those charged include Ahmed, Shoiab, Yousif, and Mufid!

EBT Nation! My go-to graphic when I can’t find a photo of the food stamp crooks

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.