The alleged scammers in this story from New Mexico probably aren’t “refugees” or “asylum seekers,” just ordinary run-of-the-mill Hispanics who, if they aren’t legal Americans at this time, they soon will be thanks to Amnesty Rubio and the gang.
The EBT Nation!
Longtime readers know that immigrant food stamp fraud is a side interest of mine. I’ve never counted them, but I bet if you type ‘food stamp fraud‘ into our search function you will get a hundred posts on the topic spanning 5 years. And, we aren’t talking about petty scamming—this is the big stuff, food stamp trafficking. Each and every case has a new and amusing twist to it.
In this story from New Mexico, Mr. and Mrs. Miguel Solis (who speak Spanish) were arrested for allegedly scamming the state and federal government of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Upon his arrest a reporter asked Miguel what was going on. He said he didn’t know, but his wife was the one paying the bills.
By the way, I searched for a mugshot for Miguel Solis, but there were just too many mugshots for perps with the same name.
This Eyewitness News 4 investigative team did a great job! Be sure to watch the news story linked here. The video has a very good explanation about how the scam is done.
In an unassuming little mom and pop shop on a side road in Farmington [replace Farmington with anytown, USA—ed], investigators say hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food stamps were being siphoned from a program to feed needy families and turned into cash.
Uniformed officers arrested the owners of the shop, Miguel Solis and his wife Ana Montano-Solis, on a federal indictment for food stamp fraud.
[….]
According to the indictment, the couple used their EBT card reader at the store to swipe EBT cards, also know as food stamp cards, to access money meant to be used to buy food.
The indictment also shows the couple was conducting transactions that paid 50 cents for every government dollar provided for food stamp benefits.
Miguel Solis said he didn’t know what was going on as he was taken to the police car.
When asked about the allegations of food stamp fraud, Solis said he didn’t know what his wife was doing and claimed that the money had gone to pay bills.
There is a huge black market in food stamp (EBT) cards with little incentive to bring the fraud under control. One of the driving forces is the large corporations who benefit from each and every additional person who signs up for the taxpayer handout.
Note! No photo ID required. Photo: Breitbart
Who knew that those 95% of Iraqi refugees on food stamps benefited JP Morgan Chase & Co?
So, we have big business demanding cheap imported immigrant labor and big business pushing food stamp usage—almost makes me want to be an Occupy Wall Streeter!
Here is Breitbart on the Hannity expose’, andhere is another Breitbart report on one aspect of the program—our favorite part, food stamp trafficking:
As Schweizer (Government Accountability Institute (GAI) president Peter Schweizer), who appeared on the special with Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, described, someone may take $150 in cash in exchange for a $250 EBT card. [Our experience is that the seller usually gets 50% or less.–ed]
While nearly 220,000 stores take EBT cards, only 100 federal employees have been tasked to monitor fraud. In addition, the USDA only monitors less than 10% of all food stamp vendors.*
As a result, there is no way to measure the amount of fraud in the $75 billion-a-year food stamp industry. Government bureaucrats have said in their defense that only 1% of the food stamps program is subject to fraud. [Estimates are much higher than 1%, but even at that wouldn’t you think that $750 million would warrant a few more investigations of the mom & pop run stores?–ed]
“It’s very easy to do because it is a card that is interchangeable,” Schweizer said, noting the government does not want to even implement photo ID on the cards so as not to stigmatize the EBT card recipients.
In GAI’s investigation, undercover EBT card users were able to trade their cards for cash at stores. They used the cards to buy cigarettes, beer, and condoms, and store clerks easily recorded those purchases as “food” purchases.
The fraud is not limited to stores in big cities like New York and Los Angeles. An investigation in Florida found two out of every three stores engaged in EBT fraud. Minnesota ranks fourth in EBT fraud and Wisconsin has many reports of EBT cards being stolen. [Stolen cards are replaced with no questions asked and the original card is still out there in use—ed]
Yet despite this evidence of rampant fraud, Schweizer argued there is no incentive to combat the fraudulent use of taxpayer dollars because those involved in the food stamps program do not want to destroy the profitable black market.
* It is very important for you to keep an eye on the convenience stores in your neighborhoods and tell local police about any suspicious activity.
For more on Food Stamp Fraud see our archive here—we have dozens and dozens of posts on busted immigrant-run convenience stores.
Update: Richard Falknor has a very good overview of the problems with the Food Stamp Program and calls on the Republicans in the House to do something, here, at Blue Ridge Forum.
Longtime readers know that writing about food stamp fraud perpetrated at mom & pop immigrant-run stores is my hobby along with my other charitable work of writing about refugee resettlement. Last night there was a breakthrough in the mainstream media when Bill O’Reilly had a segment on trafficking in food stamps and how much of your money is being lost through that form of fraud!
He had on an expert from the CATO Institute, Chris Edwards, who estimated that food stamp fraud is costing the US government $3 billion a year, far above the Dept. of Agriculture’s $750 million estimate. When I find a link for the segment I’ll post it here. O’Reilly seemed genuinely surprised at how the trafficking scam works. For new readers, ‘customers’ in possession of food stamps (nearly 50 million people now!) sell them to the store for usually 50 cents on the dollar—customer gets his 50 cents and the store turns the full dollar in to the feds for repayment. LOL! Redistribution of wealth anyone!
And, of course O’Reilly and Edwards never mentioned any connections to immigrant-run stores and probably never will—too politically incorrect to notice such a thing?
The second media breakthrough on a fraud story came yesterday also in this news account of a convenience store bust in Daytona. The news account actually told the reader where these alleged scammers are from! Usually readers are left to guess just where this supposedly LEGAL immigrant, with a non-American sounding name, came from.
From the Daytona Beach News Journal (be sure to read the whole story because these perps did a slightly different form of the trafficking scam):
DAYTONA BEACH — A Ridgewood Avenue convenience store owner and his son were arrested Monday after Daytona Beach police, state and federal agents raided his business in connection with a food stamp scam, a police spokesman said.
Bassam Sale Abu Diab, 55, a native of Israel, and his son, Matthew Bassam Abu Diab, born in the U.S., were each charged with three counts of misappropriating public assistance funds, making misrepresentations to a credit card issuer, obtaining property by fraud and communications fraud.
Bassam Sale Abu Diab “a native of Israel”
Daytona Beach police, Daytona Beach Code Enforcement, The U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Florida Department of Revenue served two search warrants Monday morning on the Diabs, said police spokesman Jimmie Flynt.
The raid Monday was the culmination of an investigation into the food stamp fraud that started in December. Search warrants were served at 4M Food Mart at 740 North Ridgewood Ave. and at the Abu Diabs’ home at 221 Gala Circle, Flynt said.
The execution of the warrants resulted in the seizure of $23,000 and a vehicle. A tally of the receipts show that at least $88,000 in Electronic Benefit Transfer transactions were made at the store, and the amount did not include the value of the merchandise the Abu Diabs bought at Walmart and Save-A-Lot stores in the area, Flynt said. [The amount of money ripped off here is smaller than many other food stamp fraud cases we’ve reported, some have reached upwards of a million dollars. They must have nabbed this pair early—ed].
[…..]
The investigation focused on the illegal use of EBT (food stamp) cards. Investigations revealed that 4M Food Mart employees purchased the cards and paid between 20 and 40 cents on the dollar after using the cards to buy goods at Walmart and Save-A-Lot stores, police arrest reports show.
Abu Diab, the younger, used expletives on arresting officers
Sounds like these guys are cheapskates only returning 20-40 cents on the dollar, it is usually 50 cents, but when you read the rest of the story, it looks like their version of the scam does return 50 cents to the ‘customer.’
Also, be sure to watch the news footage about this bust, here, where Abu Diab, the younger, reportedly swears at arresting officers.
Wouldn’t you love to know how the senior came to be in the US, which of our highly-praised LEGAL immigration programs got him here. Maybe junior’s mom gave birth to junior here and then the old man was able to gain entry through his son? I guess it’s too much to hope for that a real investigative reporter would find out the immigration status of Dad. Nevertheless, we should be grateful that this reporter, Patricio G. Balona, told us this much.
LOL! I would not be surprised though to learn that this pair is Palestinian and the reporter could only go so far as to report “native of Israel.”
For more on food stamp fraud at immigrant-run stores, just type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function and I bet I have a hundred stories similar to this one spanning the last five years.
An afterthought: If you are on twitter help get this story out!
Someone else notices! I’ve been writing about food stamp fraud (the big stuff—trafficking) for five years and have noticed a trend, now I see another blogger has noticed. The website is the Libertarian Republican. Here is how the blogger wraps up his post headlined like mine above (which I borrowed from these guys).
Editor’s note – “age and address [ethncitiy and immigration status] unknown, or “unmentioned” by the leftist-biased, diversity-obsessed media.”
Yup! That is pretty much the trend. Sometimes the mainstream media will give the age (they did here), but ethnicity and immigration status almost never. Although a tip-off sometimes happens when the story mentions that money (your money!) was wired to another country.
Here is the news from Pennsylvania that prompted this (one of several) new food stamp fraud busts in my alerts. The alleged fraudsters are Samson Dweh (Liberian maybe?) and Emile Bizimungu (Rwandan?) and they are being busted on wire fraud (hmmmm!) as well as food stamp fraud. This is our second Pennsylvania bust in recent days. Remember Kuldip Kaur pouting in Pottstown, here.
Two Brentwood men who ran separate small grocery stores in the South Hills were indicted Wednesday for wire fraud and food stamp fraud, documents filed today in U.S. District Court show.
Samson Dweh, 30, ran Mariama African Store in Carrick, according to the indictment naming him.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture authorized him to begin accepting food stamps in February 2009.
Starting in August 2010, according to the indictment, Mr. Dweh started paying cash for food stamp benefits, paying around 50 cents on each dollar of benefit the customer sought to cash in.
He would then bill the U.S.D.A. as if the benefits were spent on food, according to the indictment.
Through last year, Mr. Dweh redeemed more than $200,000 in food stamp benefits, “a substantial portion of such benefits having been unlawfully purchased for cash; accepted as payment on credit accounts or loans; and/or accepted as payment for ineligible items,” according to the indictment.
Emile Bizimungu, 31, faces similar accusations as regards the Dollar Grocery Center in Mt. Oliver, according to the indictment against him.
The USDA approved him to accept food stamp cards in Aug. 2011. Starting a month later, according to the indictment, he began trading benefits for cash, and the total reached more than $40,000, according to the charges.
Besides the media never telling us the nationality or ethnicity of the perps, the other huge trend I’ve noticed is that most of this big fraud of the food stamp program is being run out of immigrant-run convenience stores.
To Arizona
Dollar Dayz in Phoenix, AZ busted this week. $700,000 in fraud alleged. Photo: 3TV
We have another case, a big one!, in Arizona yesterday where we aren’t even given the alleged fraudsters names, so will keep an eye on it and they will eventually have to tell us who is ripping off the food stamp program in Phoenix to the tune of $700,000!
Phoenix (Wednesday, March 27, 2013) – A multi-agency task force today announced an investigation leading to the identification of four people who work at Dollar Dayz general store located at 1602 West Buckeye Road in Phoenix for Illegally Conducting an Enterprise, Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, Money Laundering, Unlawful Use of Food Stamps and Computer Tampering.
The investigation comes after months of a coordinated undercover operation involving the United States Department of Agriculture – Office of the Inspector General (USDA OIG), Phoenix Police Department (PD), the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, and the Arizona Department of Economic Security, Office of Special Investigations.
At 12 PM, a Special Assignment Unit of the Phoenix PD made entry into the Dollar Dayz general store, securing it and allowing search warrants to be served so that criminal and civil evidence could be gathered. Examples of evidence include cash, bank records, extraneous food stamp cards, and businessledgers.
In this case, it is alleged that on multiple occasions the store provided cash to individuals in exchange for SNAP (food stamp) benefits in fraudulent transactions during the course of the investigation. Preliminary data from USDA estimates fraud against the SNAP program exceeded $700,000 from this store location alone since 2010.
When searching around through other accounts of the Dollar Dayz bust for the alleged fraudsters names, one report mentioned that the shelves were nearly bare in this store—an early tip-off sign for you if you have a convenience store like this one in your neighborhood. The other day I mentioned at my other blog, here, what some of the signs were of a fraudulent convenience store.
I’ll report back when I find out who was arrested in Arizona.
For more on food stamp fraud cases like these, type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function and I’ll bet there are a hundred posts on this type of fraud perpetrated by immigrant-run stores.
About the photo: There is more on the case at AZ Family.com, here.
Longtime readers know that following food stamp fraud is a hobby of mine here at RRW. Something is happening because the number of busts seem to be increasing! Should we thank the O-man in the White House? Perhaps!
Also, for critics who think I’m selecting busts of immigrant scammers and skipping over the Bakers, the Smiths and the Jones trafficking in food stamps, I’m not. Easily nine out of ten stories I come across through my alerts involve immigrant-owned or managed stores.
I don’t think all of the cases are isolated, there is some international criminal element involved (some of your scammed money is sent out of the country), but I have no idea what it is, just some guesses.
I had two intriguing cases show up yesterday. Looks like in both cases they are Indian store owners. Hey, Professor Kotkin are these some of your immigrant entrepreneurs moving to middle America?
POTTSTOWN — Two people were arrested after police served search warrants at three borough stores in connection with a fraud investigation involving food stamp access cards.
Adbu Aljash, 38, of Pottstown, and Kuldip Kaur, 40, of King of Prussia, were both charged with felony corrupt organization and other related charges, according to court documents.
An unhappy Indian? Kuldip Kaur couldn’t post bail and is in the slammer.
Kaur worked at the Quick Mart Grocery Store on 55 E. High Street. Customers were able to buy cigarettes, non-food items and could receive cash back on their government-issued ACCESS cards, according to court records.
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Office of Inspector General had been monitoring Kaur and the store since last August 2012, according to the police report.
During that time, approximately $94,865 worth of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) transactions happened at the store, the police report said.
Undercover agents made five trips to the Quick Mart, the report said.
The officer picked up a few items and during the transaction and then asked for $75 in cash back. Kaur charged $159.70 to the card, then told the undercover agent not to ask anyone else in the store to make those types of transactions, according to the report.
On four subsequent visits, undercover officers asked for cash on the ACCESS card, the report said.
During a trip on Dec. 19, 2012, the officer reported that Kaur told them to “type in what you want” when the officer asked for cash back, according to the report.
When an undercover officer asked Kaur how much he would get if Kaur took $250 off the card, she allegedly told the officer he would receive $125, the report said.
[…..]
When Kaur was arrested Friday afternoon, she seemed confused but did not resist the police.During the execution of the search warrant, police also found drug paraphernalia.
It’s unclear if Aljash is Indian, his name doesn’t appear to be Indian (his photo is posted at the story in a slide show of the arrests, so have a look).
The transactions that Aljash made were much lower, but he is involved in two schemes using the cards at borough convenience stores, according to police.
Aljash allegedly took part in ACCESS card fraud schemes at a store at 315 E. High St. and a store at 435 N. Charlotte St., according to the police report.
In our second case today, from Green Bay, a family of Sikhs have already plead guilty and are awaiting sentencing for a number of charges involving food stamp fraud.
A family of three will be sentenced April 29 in Brown County Circuit Court on charges connected to food stamp fraud at a store they own and operate on Green Bay’s northeast side.
Gurnek and Gurdeep Basanti and their daughter Simarjot, 26, all pleaded guilty to charges on Thursday. Gurnek and Gurdeep each pleaded to a felony count of food stamp fraud involving a value between $100 and $5,000, and two misdemeanor counts involving a value of less than $100.
They both were facing two felonies and 18 misdemeanors involving more food stamp fraud charges, theft and credit card fraud.
This case also has a hate crime element—a hater or a disgruntled customer?
The Basantis were charged in August with running a food stamp fraud operation out of the store. The complaint said that, with the cooperation of some of their food stamp customers, the couple would overcharge them and pocket the extra cash. They also allegedly would allow those customers to buy alcohol and cigarettes, products that are prohibited under the food stamp program. They also would require some of their customers to leave their credit cards in the store for a period as security for debt and they allegedly used the cards to make purchases.
They have been operating another store, Dollar Land, at the Irwin Avenue site since losing their liquor license. The store was in the news earlier this month when a man emptied a small vial of gasoline onto the cash register and lit it, causing minor damage.
James Parrish, 53, of Green Bay, is accused of arson as a hate crime, first-degree recklessly endangering safety and carrying a concealed weapon in connection with the incident. His next court appearance is April 5.
Parrish was charged with a hate crime because the Basantis are Sikh Americans.
Any real investigative reporters out there? We have dozens and dozens of examples of immigrant-run food stamp fraud cases from sea to shining sea. This is a potential Pulitzer prize winning story for someone! Type ‘food stamp fraud’ into our search function and see what I mean.
My theory is that there are international operatives who recruit potential store owners, train them, provide seed money, and with the help of US attorneys who specialize in helping procure investor visas get them set up in the lucrative business of scamming the American taxpayer.
