Tag: food stamp fraud

Washington state: Couple faces extradition for ripping off Romanian government

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

These aren’t refugees, far from it! 

Radu and Diana Nemes, nice immigrant couple next door!

They are a super-rich Romanian couple with most of their millions stashed away in Dubai, but they had somehow gotten into America, overstayed, and were already on a detainer from ICE when it was learned they were wanted in Romania.  They are now being held in detention while their lawyers fight the detention.*

So, if they aren’t “refugees” why am I writing about this?

As a hobby at RRW, we have followed probably a hundred food stamp fraud cases perpetrated by immigrant owners of ‘Mom & Pop’ convenience stores and gas stations and I’ve contended that many of those immigrant ‘entrepreneurs’ got in here on an E-2 Investor Visa.  Reader ‘pungentpeppers’ read this long news story to the end and reports that they were trying to get an E-2 visa when they bought into a winery.

With an E-2 visa, the immigrant ‘entrepreneur’ with minor children can stay in America for 5 years at a time, and then must renew the visa.  The Nemeses expected to be staying for a long time because authorities found illegal guns and an underground bunker in the expensive new home they were building.

The next time you hear the Open Borders lobby bragging about how immigrants are opening businesses, remember the Nemeses.

Just a reminder to you, mostly politically-correct Republicans, when you are tempted to say, ‘I don’t like illegal immigration, but LEGAL is what America is all about!’ think about people like this Romanian pair who got in here through some legal means.

From the Nisqually Valley News:

A U.S. Magistrate judge on Thursday ordered Radu and Diana Nemes to remain detained pending the resolution of their extradition case.

The Nemeses’ lawyer said she would appeal the decision.

The bunker!

Court documents reveal that agents found an underground bunker at the couple’s property where they were building a “luxury home,” and found more than a half dozen firearms, including an AR-15 “assault rifle,” in the residence where the couple was living.

Radu Nemes, 39, and his wife Diana Nemes, 38, who were arrested on Tuesday under an extradition treaty with Romania, are accused of defrauding the Romanian government of the equivalent of about $73 million, according to court documents. The Nemeses are also accused of laundering money, and allegedly used the funds to purchase vehicles, business interests and living expenses, and to construct a luxury home. Court documents also state they purchased a 67 percent interest in Eagleview Hill, LLC, the corporation that owns Eagleview Hill Winery in Rainier and Salida Wine Bar in Yelm.

[….]

Diana Nemes initially expressed she wanted to invest in the company to obtain an E-2 visa, McCrea (winery owner) said. Such a visa allows a non-citizen to stay in the United States predicated on their being the majority owner of a business.

Amazing story, read it all.

Come on mainstream media!  Why can’t some real investigative reporter dig into this Investor visa scam which definitely involves some American immigration lawyers and help expose this immigrant ‘entrepreneur’ mythology.

* Did you know that the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, a federal refugee contractor, opposes detention for immigrants.

Refugees in camps abroad being educated on how to come to America and get welfare

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Buried deep in a story about Niagara County, NY cracking down on food stamp fraud and other types of welfare fraud is a little nugget we have always suspected but never have seen in writing until the ever-watchful ‘pungentpeppers’ spotted it near the end of the story in the Buffalo News.

Remember Buffalo is a “preferred” refugee placement site for the US State Department and its resettlement contractors.

Owners of this store were busted for food stamp fraud.
http://www.niagara-gazette.com/local/x1387867593/POVERTY-IN-NIAGARA-Sheriffs-office-unit-has-its-hands-full-fighting-welfare-fraud-in-the-county

Here is how the story begins:

LOCKPORT – The Niagara County Sheriff’s Office is playing hardball with individuals and store owners who try to cheat the public assistance system.

And it’s paying off, with Niagara County taxpayers saving more than $500,000 in overpayments in 2013. The department added a second welfare fraud investigator in 2013, which has easily paid for itself, and says adding a third would do the same.

Read all about the crooks who ran the Indian General Store.  Then this:

And sadly, New York State taxpayers are being victimized not only by their own residents, but also by people from outside of New York.

Niagara County Legislator David E. Godfrey, R-Wilson, who works with the Sheriff’s Office as the community, safety and security liaison, said people are being trained in southern states to get benefits and then are being bused to New York State.

“I spoke with the joint terrorism task force and they say that in refugee camps overseas there are pamphlets of how to come to New York and get benefits,” said Irons-Rindfleisch. But she said Social Services does have access to databases to make sure that people are not getting benefits in more than one state.

“One of the things that the legislatures are looking at – and it’s not just in Niagara County, it’s all of New York State – is welfare fraud by those non-residents,” Godfrey said.

We have a fairly large archive on Buffalo (including other food stamp fraud cases), so if you are from that area, you might want to check it out here.

Ohio: Somalis indicted in food stamp fraud, sent your money abroad

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Readers, most of the Somalis in the US are here as refugees, or family members of refugees.  After Minnesota, Ohio is a destination of choice for Somalis as secondary migrants where they move to create Somali enclaves.  The population in some Ohio cities is rapidly expanding.

LOL!  In fact David Lubell and his ‘Welcoming America’ group of community organizers has been pushing Cleveland as a mecca of immigrant entrepreneurial economic activity!

EBT Nation! My go-to graphic when photos of the alleged crooks can’t be found!

Although we have had a few food stamp fraud busts in the past that specifically mention the fact that your taxpayer dollars are being sent out of the country, it is still rare for the feds to mention that part of the fraud scheme.

From WKYC.com (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

CLEVELAND — Four men from Northeast Ohio were charged in a five-count indictment with engaging in a conspiracy to defraud the food stamp and Women, Infants and Children programs from a store on Detroit Avenue in Cleveland, law enforcement officials said.

Indicted are: Bashir Mohammed, 31, of Cleveland; Yusuf Maalin, 45, of Cleveland; Ali Shire Ahmed, 54, of North Olmsted, Ohio; and Farah Hasan Warsame, 27, of Cleveland.  [I could find no photos of the perps, but from these names we believe they are all Somalis, they generally live together and commit crimes with their own kind.—ed]

The indictment alleges that Mohamed, Maalin, Ahmed, and Warsame conspired to illegally allow customers to redeem food stamp and WIC benefits at Bashir Market, 8401 Detroit Avenue, in exchange for cash, ineligible items, and credit towards overseas wire transfers.

Mohamed, Maalin, and Warsame allegedly worked at the market and redeemed the food stamp and WIC benefits for the cash, unauthorized items, or credit towards overseas funds transfers. The credit for overseas funds transfers was tracked on a ledger kept at the market, according to the indictment.

Mohamed or Maalin would then provide Ahmed with cash or a check that Ahmed would take to Columbus to send overseas by wire transfer.

The indictment alleges that the conspiracy involved the attempted redemption of approximately $670,612 in food stamp and WIC benefits, according to the indictment.

See all of our posts in our immigrant-run food stamp fraud archive by clicking here.

Washington State Pakistanis arrested in convenience store fraud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Pakistani, Fraz A. “Tony” Mushtaq, (now US citizen) was sending your tax dollars to Pakistan! http://www.kirotv.com/photo/news/fraz-mushtaq/p7cZ2/

They allegedly reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars through food stamp fraud, selling drugs and trafficking in stolen property, then sent money to Pakistan.

Readers, since the availability of the facebook page Diversity’s Dark Side, run-of-the-mill immigrant food stamp frauds will be posted there, but this one had a couple of juicy bits that add to our extensive archive on food stamp fraud here at RRW.

From the Herald Net (Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

EVERETT — A police raid on a downtown mini-mart Tuesday morning was the culmination of a 17-month investigation into food-stamp fraud.

Fraz A. “Tony” Mushtaq, 34, the owner of the A One Smoke & Grocery store at Everett and Colby avenues, is suspected of paying people cents on the dollar for access to their state food-benefits cards.

He also is under investigation for allegedly buying and selling merchandise shoplifted from area stores, money laundering and selling an illegal form of synthetic marijuana known as “spice,” police say.

Everett police believe a significant amount of the store’s inventory has been ill-gotten, said Lt. Jim Duffy, who leads the special investigations unit.

The police department has received complaints about the store for several years, he said.

[….]

Police believe the amount of stolen merchandise moved through the store, including pop, energy drinks and cigarettes, could total in the millions of dollars. Careful financial investigation has documented hundreds of thousands of dollars in questionable transactions, Duffy (Lt. Jim Duffy) said.

The police have been investigating this case since 2012.  So, did he already have US citizenship or get it after the investigation had begun?

Mushtaq is from Pakistan and became a U.S. citizen a couple of years ago, Duffy said. Investigators believe he was sending money from his store back home to Pakistan.

And, this next bit is ludicrous!  Everett investigators claim the money was not used for any “improper activities” in Pakistan!  We are expected to believe these local investigators (or anyone else!) were able to follow the money in Pakistan!  Not to mention the fact that tax dollars from food stamp fraud going to a foreign country constitutes an “improper” activity all by itself!

They found no evidence the money was being used there for any improper activities, Duffy said.

For new readers:  Immigrant-perpetrated food stamp fraud became a side interest here at RRW in 2008, click here for our extensive archive.

Baltimore: Two citizens of Yemen plead guilty to $2 million in food stamp fraud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Baltimore convenience store where Yemenis ripped off US taxpayers for millions. You can’t make this up!

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.