Two admit $15m fraud in food stamp program

The Boston Post | 3-17-02 | AP

[vannrox]

CLEVELAND .Two men who ran five.grocery stores admitted cheating the fed­eral food stamp program out of $15 mil­lion and laundering the money through banks in Ohio and the Middle East. Ab­deUaWAbuz-ahrieh and All Jaber Faiz pleaded guilty Wednesday in US District Court to conspiracy to commit money laundering. They are expected to each receive 3.5 years In prison. Authorities said that from 1994 to last year, the stores ' bought food stamps from welfare recipients at a discount and redeemed them with the government for full value. (AP)

[vannrox]

This is a small note that I found in the newspaper. It involves Food Stamp Fraud. By Arab nationals. Hummm...

[vannrox]

Note bump.

[mystery-ak]

Please no profiling(sarcasm)

[Fish out of Water]

index bump

[FITZ]

I don't understand the very low sentence given. I wonder how much of the money ended up going to support terrorism.

[cinFLA]

But, where is the money?

[FITZ]

We should just end the food stamp programs altogether, put up some government soup lines instead so this massive fraud ends. I bet soup lines would save 90% of the money going to the food stamp program.

[deport]

Debit cards could help stop this, but then I guess the store owner could debit the card and give the customer a reduced amount of cash.

[proudofthesouth]

My thoughts exactly.

[madrastex]

I think they ought to see Gitmo.

[Miss Marple]

I got curious about food stamp fraud, so I did a google search. The small cases seem to be deli and liquor stores owned by US natives. The BIG cases seem to be Muslims or (ta-da) Chinese.

[Drew68]

They are expected to each receive 3.5 years In prison.

Oh, that'll teach 'em! And they still have $15 mil when they get out? Not a bad deal if you ask me. I'd easily spend 3 and 1/2 years in prison (more like 20-24 months) for that kind of cash.

[Dog Gone]

3.5 years for $15 million? I'd say crime does pay. They are probably out in two years.

Nice wages.

[FITZ]

Debit cards could help stop this, but then I guess the store owner could debit the card and give the customer a reduced amount of cash.

Those debit cards don't help at all ---that's exactly what happens.

[Pern]

Darn it! You posted my exact reply before I could!

I'd do 3 1/2 years in 'Club Fed' for that kind of dough!

[Drew68]

Authorities said that from 1994 to last year, the stores bought food stamps from welfare recipients at a discount and redeemed them with the government for full value.

Talk about a win/win situation. The welfare recipients get cold hard cash for items such as liquor, cigarettes and drugs, and these guys make bank. Since the money has already been laundered, we probably won't see any of it.

[carra]

3 years in prison for 15 million dollars worth of fraud. That comes out to about 5 million per year for being in prison. That sure pays alot better than my job. May be time to reconsider occupations.

[jimtorr]

We could go back to the food programs before food stamps were foisted on our nation by a Dem congress and Nixon.

When my father injured himself in 1970 and could not work for two years, we were given federal surplus food. Powdered milk, whole stewed chickens, canned hams, lots of glorius spam, organic peanut butter, dairy butter, rice, etc. Did I mention the raw cane sugar? Some of that stuff is considered gourmet quality, these days, like the raw sugar and the spam.

The food give-a-way was administered by the county, not the feds. People could still sell the food, I suppose, but opportunities for fraud would be limited.

I think we started to receive food stamps in early 1971.

[deport]

Prolly correct. A lot of the employees are brought in and when their visas expire they disappear or go to another area. Many sleep in the back room on a cot and the owners are very powerful among their people. They own most of the non chain type smaller convenience stores now, or so it seems, even a lot of the smaller motels.

[Hot Tabasco]

The BIG cases seem to be Muslims or (ta-da) Chinese

Here in the Detroit area, it is a standing joke that the gas stations are owned by the Lebanese and the party stores are owned by the Caldeans. In all fairness to the Muslim population, they are the only ones with cajones enough to own party stores in the city of Detroit. Given the numbers of welfare recipients there one wonders how much fraud is really taking place. Probably lots and lots but only isolated incidents where store owners are actually making it their trade...