….more investigative work is needed! And, you can do it!
In the wake of the media fire storm over Donald Trump’s remarks relating to the Khan family, research, like this by Dennis Michael Lynch showed that Khizr Khan has a financial vested interest in helping immigrants get to the US through the little-known Investor Visaprograms at the US State Department.
Here is Lynch:
The father of a Muslim-American soldier killed in Iraq, who spoke at the Democrat National Convention, is an immigration lawyer who specializes in a visa program that allows immigrants to effectively buy U.S. citizenship with an E-2 or EB-5 visa.
Immigration lawyer Khizr Khan at the DNC convention. If Trump is elected one of the first programs to be investigated is the US DOS Investor Visa programs.
Khizr Kahn has been blasting Donald Trump for wanting to wanting to halt immigration from Muslim nations that have links to terror. Even House Speaker Paul Ryan has jumped on the band wagon, claiming it is wrong to apply a “religious test” for immigrants.
In reality, Trump’s policy on immigration has the potential to impact Kahn financially. Khan’s website states that he helps clients with the E-2 and EB-5 programs, which allow foreign investors to buy into U.S. companies. The programs also provide green cards for family members. The website also states that he assists with purchase of U.S. real estate and businesses.
Continue reading here. And, as you know Khan’s website has been taken down! See also Breitbart on the news that the website has been removed.
It is through the Investor Visa program that so many US convenience stores and mom & pop gas stations are being bought up by immigrants. Go to any seedy neighborhood (like the ones I saw in Toledo recently) and there is an immigrant-run convenience store it seems on every block. There is no way they are all making a living selling bread, milk and cigarettes. My guess is that many are participating in what is known as trafficking in food stamps.
For years I followed this fraud issue—-trafficking in food stamps—-and finally had to give it up because so much is happening with the refugee program.
Here is one post I wrote in the spring of 2010 explaining how immigration lawyers, like Khan, not only help the ‘investors’ get in to the US, but very often find them the stores to purchase. (For the E-2 program only a small investment is necessary to buy in to America.)
Now, I am not saying every store owned by an immigrant is running a food stamp scam, but many are! And, you will see how many if you type ‘food stamp fraud’in to RRW’s search window. You will even find some stories about how US food stamp dollars are sent to Muslim countries as well!
(Let me be clear! I am not saying Khizr Khan knows anything about food stamp trafficking or sending US food stamp dollars out of the country!)
I am, however, now renewing my appeal to any wannabe investigator (amateur or otherwise) to dig into this issue and this issue alone—Investor Visas and Food stamp fraud!—it is huge!
Find the link between the program and stores busted for food stamp fraud!
We received a disturbing anonymous comment from a reader with knowledge of the inner workings of one of the federal ‘religious’ refugee resettlement contracting offices in Florida. But, before I tell you what the commenter reported, I want to remind long-time readers and alert new readers to my long-standing interest in food stamp fraud in the immigrant community. Florida EBT card
We previouslywrote many posts on major food stamp fraud (called trafficking), but have had to give up the interest for lack of time.
However, I must say I am half tempted to take a break from writing RRW to begin addressing the many frauds being perpetrated on the taxpayer by those we have “welcomed” to America—food stamp fraud, Medicare/Medicaid fraud, housing fraud, daycare fraud, driver’s license fraud and the list goes on.
I simply can’t understand why mainstream investigative reports AND even the alternative media are largely ignoring the subject.
Americans are generous, but they don’t want to be cheated.
From a reader:
In order to receive food stamps in Florida, applicants must submit proof of employment (earnings statements) or proof of loss of employment (from former employer). Amount of food stamps received depends on number in household, income, expenses, etc.
So, a Florida refugee resettlement caseworker asks coworker how to reapply for food stamps for refugee client who is working and being paid $300 per week “under the table” and therefore has no income and employment documentation to submit with the benefit application.
Coworker says, “You have three options. 1. Reapply and don’t submit employment documentation and client will be turned down for benefits. 2. Reapply and provide the employer’s name, amount of cash being paid to worker, etc., and see the employer busted and the employee fired! 3. Follow the law, tell client to either work legally and receive income proof or don’t apply for benefits!
Next issue—same day!
Refugee resettlement caseworker asks coworker if there is any funding available to help a client pay $400+ for his driver’s license.Coworker says, “$400 dollars? It doesn’t cost $400 to get a driver’s license!” Caseworker says client must pay about $50 for the driver’s license but needs the other $350+ to pay the Arabic speaking “friend” who will interpret at the DMV and give the correct answers since the refugee client doesn’t know the answers!
(The request for extra funding for the “interpreter” was denied, but how many other agencies do risk your lives on the road when refugees fraudulently obtain drivers’s licenses. We have heard plenty of stories over the years about those driver’s license fraud cases.—ed.)
Both cases involved Iraqi refugees we are told.
Our category ‘Comments worth noting/guest posts’was designed for readers to get messages out that we find informative. If you have first-hand knowledge of fraud in the refugee resettlement ‘industry,’ please send it our way.
Longtime readers know that the subject of food stamp fraud perpetrated by immigrant managers and owners of mom & pop convenience stores has been a hobby of mine here at RRW. I have probably written a hundred posts on the topic over the years after I witnessed it happening near where I live in 2007 (at the same time the refugees were arriving here). Nine of 17 arrested in Alabama yesterday on food stamp fraud charges. Your tax dollars were sent to Yemen!
Recently, I haven’t written much on the subject simply because there are not enough hours in the day. And, it is a side issue because, although refugees are heavily using food stamps, most of the perps running these stores are not refugees but got in to the US through other mostly LEGAL means.
Also, in one of the last posts I wrote on the multi-million dollar fraud, here in November 2014, I begged someone wishing to become a blogger to please take on food stamp fraud (trafficking in food stamps) as a primary investigative focus. It is huge! If they gave Pulitzer Prizes for bloggers, a blogger who unravels this huge international scam on America could win the prize! I am convinced it isn’t happening as isolated cases and that the scams are hatched abroad.
What is the legal immigration program that admits all of these foreign “investors” to the US? Here is your chance to help save America—find out how it is being done!
Maybe someone could get Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) to look into this!
A reader sent me this storyabout the massive bust in Alabama yesterday!
A couple of steaks shoplifted at a Gardendale Walmart three months ago led to the biggest food stamp fraud investigation in Jefferson County’s history, and launched 11 simultaneous raids this morning at convenience stores countywide.
Led by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office, teams of law enforcement officers met at 5 a.m. for a briefing and then fanned out across the county beginning at 6:50 a.m. The officers and agents were armed with 242 arrest warrants and plans to arrest 17 suspects.
All 17 suspects were in custody by mid-morning, and investigators already today have filed for forfeiture and condemnation of those 11 stores, which totals more than $1 million in assets.
“This is huge for us,” said Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls.
The massive probe, dubbed Operation T-bone, targeted those they say have been cheating the food stamp system to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars and sending at least some of the profits via wire transfer to Yemen.
[….]
How big is the problem? “It is enormous. It is pervasive,” Raulston said. “We actually had to cut off the number we were going to prosecute this round, and this will be an ongoing investigation and prosecution for our office.”
When I followed food stamp fraud regularly there was a very clear pattern when one examined the names of those arrested!
Those arrested in today’s raids are: Jowher Almnasoob, Abdulrahman Alqublani, Ismail Hassan Elnaham, Saleh Yahya Rowaid, Ramzi Jowher Ali Almansoob, Mujahed Jowher Ali Almansoob, Bashir Abosaleh Mohamed, Fouad Zamzami, Muneer Zindani, Sufyan Saleh, Mansoor Almansoob, Audrey Morris, Jerry Brown, Keith Lee Lucas, Travis Wayne Holmes, Murad Nooruddin and Mable Olympia Kirksey.
I can assure you that this is going on in all 50 states! See our extensive archive on food stamp fraud by clicking here.
I haven’t been posting food stamp trafficking stories lately (I am still hoping someone will start a blog devoted entirely to immigrants scamming our welfare system), but ‘Pungentpeppers,’ knowing I’ll be in St. Louis next week, thought it would be fun to find stories from there involving, in this case, an Iraqi criminal, most likely a refugee.
EBT Nation! This is our go-to graphic when photos of the perps are not to be found!
WE have been bringing in Iraqis for probably close to 20 years, but are now admitting a whopping just short of 20,000 a year under the refugee program and 3/4 of them are Muslims.
It was only last week that we learned that a federal resettlement contractor plans to help make the St. Louis area the most highly diversified area in the country by 2020.
When your city becomes a “welcoming” city for refugees and other immigrants, the welfare scammers will follow.
ST. LOUIS • The owner of a St. Louis grocery store and bakery was sentenced in federal court here Wednesday to 15 months in federal prison for food stamp fraud.
Jalil Al-Hanoosh, 53, of St. Louis, bought food stamps from customers of his Babylon Grocery & Bakery at a discounted rate, then redeemed them for full price from the government, prosecutors said. He also allowed customers to use the stamps, formally known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, for unauthorized purchases such as cigarettes, phones, rugs and other non-food items, they said.
The grocery is located at 3803 Meramec Street.
Prosecutors said that the the grocery redeemed about $148,000 in illegal benefits from January 2008-May 2012. The benefits are supposed to go towards keeping lower income individuals and families from going hungry.
Al-Hanoosh pleaded guilty in October to one count of wire fraud and two felony of food stamp fraud.
We have a huge archive going back years on food stamp fraud at mostly immigrant-run convenience stores, click here. We have a lot of news lately from St. Louis too, for more go here.
Baltimore convenience store where Yemenis ripped off US taxpayers for millions. You can’t make this up! https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/02/07/baltimore-two-citizens-of-yemen-plead-guilty-to-2-million-in-food-stamp-fraud/
For new readers, a side hobby of mine here at RRW has been to report on immigrant-run convenience stores ripping us off with food stamp fraud. I’m not talking about the petty stuff, it is the multi-million dollar trafficking fraud I’m talking about.
(For the most part this doesn’t involve refugees except that they use a lot of food stamp dollars and they are probably among those selling their benefits.)
I’m going to tell you about this latest sentencing right here in Maryland of Abdulmalik Abdulla and Ahmed Mohssen, in a minute. They ripped us off to the tune of $1.1 million and got only 4 years in prison (which we have to pay for too!).
Supposedly they will pay restitution, but where will they get that kind of money running a legitimate business? And, besides especially with the Middle Easterners, most of the money has long ago left the country! Why not just deport them!
But first, here is my pitch (I’ve done this on many previous occasions, but have a lot more readers now). WILL SOMEONE PLEASE WRITE A BLOG DEVOTED TO FRAUD SCHEMES PERPETRATED BY IMMIGRANTS. Every single day I see stories about food stamp fraud, medicare/medicaid fraud, housing fraud and other welfare fraud, so you would have lots of material to write from!
And, all day long I get e-mails from people who must spend many hours reading news on far-flung subjects, why not devote that same time to one or two things, become an investigative reporter, write a blog or other website and get something important accomplished! We have enough news junkies to go around and besides we can all read Drudge! What we don’t have are enough brave investigators!
And, truthfully, if someone doesn’t do it soon, I’m quitting RRW to start such a blog.
For our critics: If you are saying to yourself—Americans commit fraud too—then write your own blog on American scammers! After all, it is a free country (at least for now).
Sorry for my rant! But, here is thenews from Baltimore directly from the US Attorney’s office. There was no sense directing you to a half a dozen stories that amounted to 3 paragraphs each in the mainstream media. Unfortunately though, just like the mainstream media, we don’t learn the immigration status of some of those convicted. When you see that ICE was involved, you know something was suspicious about their status in the US.
Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Abdulmalik Abdulla, age 37, and Ahmed Mohssen, age 54, both of Baltimore, today each to four years in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for food stamp fraud and wire fraud in connection with a scheme to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash. Judge Bennett also ordered Abdulla and Mohssen, who were convicted on August 8, 2014, after a four day trial, to forfeit and pay restitution of $1,185,583.09.
[….]
The evidence presented at the four day trial showed that the defendants, who operated Sam’s NY Grocery, a convenience store on North Milton Street in Baltimore, received over $1.1 million in federal payments for transactions in which they did not provide any food, but split the proceeds with food stamp recipients. According to testimony at trial, the defendants exchanged EBT benefits for cash, typically paying half the value of the EBT benefits in cash and keeping the rest for themselves. The testimony at trial also showed that the defendants accepted food stamp benefits to sell individual cigarettes removed from a pack at a substantial markup. As a result of the unlawful transactions, the defendants obtained more than $1.1 million in EBT deposits for transactions in which the store did not provide food.
Then check out the others recently convicted of food stamp fraud in Maryland. Do you see a pattern?
In separate cases, the 10 convenience store owners or operators indicted in September 2013 in connection with schemes to illegally redeem food stamp benefits in exchange for cash have pleaded guilty to food stamp fraud and/or wire fraud. Abdullah Aljaradi, age 52, and Ahmed Ayedh Al-Jabrati, age 56, both citizens of Yemen residing in Baltimore, were each sentenced to two years in prison, and ordered to pay restitution of $1.2 million. Jung Kim, age 52, of Ellicott City, Maryland, was sentenced to 20 months in prison, and ordered to forfeit $95,453.50 and pay restitution of $205,000. Amara Cisse, age 51, of Windsor Mill, Maryland, was sentenced to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $654,349.24, and his wife, Fanta Keita was sentenced to two months in prison. John Cunningham, age 55, of Baltimore, was sentenced to two years in prison. Retailer Hyung Cho, age 40, was sentenced to 38 months in prison, and his mother Dae Cho, age 67, was sentenced to 18 months in prison. The Chos were also ordered to forfeit $371,439.21 and pay restitution of $1.4 million. Abdo Mohamed Nagi, age 54, a citizen of Yemen residing in Baltimore, and Kim Man Chu, age 39, of Rosedale, Maryland, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 46 months and 18 months in prison, respectively. Nagi was ordered to forfeit $1.2 million and Chu was ordered to forfeit $834,996 and six firearms along with ammunition.
Wow, looks like one American-sounding name in the whole bunch. And, a bunch of citizens of Yemen in the group—how did they even get federal approval to run a business that involved food stamps? Who helps them buy the stores? What sort of investor visa or other program could some of them be using to get in here? Do they teach Scamming the Infidels 101 in the Middle East? Does anyone in our government follow their money trail abroad?
See all of our posts on food stamp fraud(we haven’t written much in recent months), but I bet we are going on a hundred posts over the years. Some are real doozies!
