Haitian pair busted for allegedly using their mini-stores as fronts for $7M SNAP fraud scheme
Jesula Variety Store. Image source: United States Attorney’s Office criminal complaint
Despite 70% of the stores’ SNAP transactions exceeding $95, they stocked “little legitimate food inventory,” the attorney’s office found.
“During undercover operations conducted at both businesses over the course of the investigation, SNAP benefits were allegedly trafficked for cash on four occasions from Jesula Variety Store and on two occasions from Saul Mache Mixe Store,” the attorney’s office wrote. “In each instance, the defendants themselves allegedly worked the cash registers and personally exchanged SNAP benefits for cash. Both stores were also allegedly observed selling liquor in exchange for SNAP benefits.”
Additionally, the stores allegedly sold a donated food product intended for food-insecure children overseas and not authorized for retail sale.
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Saul Mache Mixe Store. Image source: United States Attorney’s Office criminal complaint
“To be certain, these were not supermarkets. They were not full-service grocers. It would be a huge stretch to even call them convenience stores,” said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley during a Wednesday press conference. “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,” she added.
Foley explained that the investigation also uncovered alleged “financial manipulations.”
“Because the stores had little legitimate inventory, and almost no lawful income, the defendants relied almost entirely on [U.S. Department of Agriculture]-funded SNAP redemptions,” Foley continued. “To conceal their fraud, they used numerous bank accounts to transfer the SNAP benefits around between the accounts they controlled to create the illusion of legitimate business activity.”
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