FBI Busts 'Shocking' SNAP Fraud Ring - Entire Stores Were Allegedly Set Up to Operate the Scam
Two Massachusetts men have been arrested in what prosecutors allege was a fraud scheme involving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits.
Antonio Bonheur, 74, of Mattapan and Saul Alisme, 21, of Hyde Park, were each charged with one count of food stamp fraud, according to a Department of Justice news release.
The Justice Department reported the scheme netted millions, with SNAP redemptions of $100,000 – $500,000 per month.
Bonheur owned the 150-square-foot Jesula Variety Store. Alisme owned the 500-square-foot Saul Mache Mixe Store. Both were in the Mattapan neighborhood of Boston.
Prosecutors said the level of SNAP redemptions at both stores was exceedingly high, with many months topping $300,000. The release said a full-service supermarket in the area redeems about $82,000 per month in SNAP benefits.
Further, more than 70 percent of transactions were for $95 and above, which is more typical for a supermarket than a small neighborhood storefront.
The release said that undercover observers saw SNAP benefits exchanged for cash and liquor exchanged for SNAP benefits.
“These men abused one of the government’s most critical safety net programs for their own financial gain. This is taxpayer money meant to keep people from going hungry. These defendants decided to take it for themselves,” United States Attorney Leah Foley said, according to WFXT-TV.
“They were not full-service groceries. It would be a huge stretch to even call them convenience stores. In fact, the only thing convenient about these stores was how easy it was to commit SNAP benefit fraud,” Foley said.
“Simply put, there is no plausible way SNAP-eligible food could have been purchased from these stores for this long. Yet, these two stores are alleged to have illicitly trafficked nearly $7 million in SNAP benefits. The fraud was shocking and glaring,” Foley said.
The two men are also charged with selling MannaPack meals, which are donated food intended for hungry children overseas.
“These products are not for sale anywhere. Yet Bonheur and Alisme were selling them in their stores for nearly $10 a pack, profiting from food literally intended for starving children in disaster zones,” Foley said.
The release said that the stores carried little food inventory, making the SNAP sales implausible. Multiple bank accounts were used to conceal the fraud, the release alleged.
Prosecutors claimed the defendants relied almost entirely on USDA-funded SNAP redemptions as income, because both stores carried little legitimate food inventory and generated minimal lawful revenue.
“What were missing from the financial records were the things you would expect in any real grocery store, such as charges for wholesale invoices or large purchases for food inventory. Instead, the accounts reflected round-trip transactions, cash movements, and internal transfers to launder the snap proceeds,” Foley said, according to WCVB-TV.
“This case exposes a serious breakdown in oversight,” she said.
Foley said investigations of SNAP abuse in the area will continue.
“We are planning to continue to investigate other stores and businesses where anomalous volumes of EBT transactions that are happening on a daily and monthly basis is completely untethered from the realities of what those stores legitimately could ever possibly redeem,” Foley said.
The release said that a charge of food stamp fraud greater than $100 could lead to a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
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