Posted on 03/07/2014 3:56:22 AM PST by TurboZamboni
Three people were charged Wednesday in connection to an extensive welfare fraud scheme. The scheme involved using EBT cards to purchase products in the Twin Cities and then ship them overseas for sale in Africa.
According to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, 39-year-old Noni Shanita Snider of Eden Prairie was charged with one count of wrongfully obtaining public assistance and one count conspiracy to commit a felony; 38-year-old Walter Carr Cooper of Plymouth was charged with one count of wrongfully obtaining public assistance and one count conspiracy to commit a felony; and 40-year-old Nyla Jean Newburgh of Minneapolis was charged with conspiracy to commit a gross misdemeanor.
The criminal ring allegedly occurred during several months in 2012, and involved the theft of thousands of dollars in benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
According to the criminal complaint, authorities received a tip about a number of individuals who were purchasing large amounts of non-perishable items including pop and Ramen noodles with SNAP benefits and then shipping them to Africa.
(Excerpt) Read more at kstp.com ...
"Welfare Fraud Suspects Allowed to Keep Welfare Cards" http://kstp.com/article/stories/s3229466.shtml
and the best part..."Investigators learned Cooper formed Floxy Enterprises in 2008 to use as a conduit for transactions and the transfer of goods to Liberia. At one time, Cooper was an employee of the Minnesota Department of Health and Human Services."
Welcome to Minnesota-here's your EBT card.
Welfare cheats. Who ever would have guessed that welfare recipients weren’t the mythical hard working poor? I’m shocked.
It would be interesting to know why they were sending the fraud goods to Liberia. (reporting is poor now days, if done at all) Are they here on visas? Legal citizens? Can they be deported?
The simplest solution is doing away with these government programs. But I well not be holding my breath.
This is Minnesota. Democrats run everything here now.
If anything, they’ll employ even more fraudsters at the Department of Human Services.
Minnesota is paying the price of refusing to tighten up its welfare requirements nearly two decades ago as the rest of the country (especially that region) did; it became a magnet for gibsmedats from around the WORLD.
I guess they haven’t heard about the welfare $$ shipments in NYC sending huge blue plastic drums (55 gal size) to Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti et al where it is sold on the black market.
The US still has many Liberians here under asylum from their civil war (which ended years ago); they claim they’ll be persecuted if they return, so they stay here (and can get work visas in the meantime) while maintaining ties with family over there.
Although I deplore the practice and actually have first hand detailed involvement with shipments of stuff to Liberia, I wonder if the man charged broke the law. It would seem the welfare cheat was the card holder that sold the card at a discount for cash.
My experience is with multiple ad hoc groups that gather stuff to ship “home” to relatives in Liberia. They have come to America where they congregate in small communities. Many (most?) are refugees. They fled the civil war in Liberia and came here. They are Christian. I was told the conflict was not religious, ie Moslem/Christian but rich,city/poor country.
They have jobs and seem hard working. They collect stuff we discard, bundle it up in plastic bags or barrels and fill a 40 ‘ container. They are fond of old Toyota pickups, garage sale clothing, used bicycles, used mattresses, used shoes, and used tires. Mixed in with the other stuff are Walmart Value Line food items.
All of the used stuff is easily come by at garage sales for cheap. It is better to buy stuff for little or nothing that can be sold in Liberia for far more than the cash value here. That is, rather than send home money, it is better to send home stuff.
The problem is that it became a collasal pain in the ass for the Liberian government. When large quantities are imported duties must be charged. The exporters can gather and load the stuff but can’t do the detailed paperwork required to conform to the Liberian import regulations and duty determination. The result is a government crack down that results in large financial loss.
Thus, the fad is petering out. It was a good idea in theory but very hard in practice. At the root though was the ability to identify an arbitrage market for used stuff, go to work gathering and shipping.
The American Black truck drivers are dumbfonded by the hard working, untelligable jabbering of unidentifiable young people. They dress white, but are very very black. The young men don’t look or act like young American blacks. Their radio was tuned to conservative talk.
Knowingly receiving stolen goods is a crime (except maybe in Philadelphia and Trenton).
What goods were stolen?
Money is fungible. The card is money
The card itself. I've never been on welfare, but I'm pretty sure those cards are issued with the proviso that they are not transferrable.
Because we don't have enough criminals here we had to import more.
“Maybe I can get asylum in Wisconsin for being persecuted by democrat thieves here.”
According to a friend that was considering moving to Minneapolis several years ago, you probably had many of your Dems move to Minneapolis. Many of the states in the region did...
“In reading the St.Paul paper today, I noted Somalians arrested for 4 violent crimes in 4 separate stories.”
Do they keep the crime amongst themselves? When I was in Minneapolis a few years back I saw Somalis, but I didn’t see them interacting with Americans (they had their own areas/businesses).
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