Free Republic

The very expensive ($70.9 billion in 2016) federal food stamp program (officially: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) is an open invitation to fraud. The latest indicator comes from Jacksonville, Florida. News4Jax.com (Channel 4 in Jacksonville) reports:

Several people in Pennsylvania were charged with allegedly stealing a total of $287,000 worth of welfare benefits in April, with some of the benefits being used to buy heroin, according to Pennsylvania’s Office of the Inspector General. The Office of the Inspector General expects to recover a total of $287,659 from the charges filed, mostly from food stamp fraud, Lehigh Valley Live reported. The alleged fraudsters stole $187,241 in Supplemental Nutrition Assistant Program benefits, $46,494 in subsidized day care, $37,052 in government-funded benefits such as Medicaid, $11,348 in monetary assistance, and $5,523 in the Low Income Energy Assistance Program.

An Arizona Democratic lawmaker was indicted for illegally getting food stamps and falsifying her application to the program in June. . . . An Ohio millionaire descended from Iranian royalty was indicted for welfare fraud in December after prosecutors allege he fraudulently took $45,000 in Medicare benefits and received $8,400 in food stamps. Mahvi, 65, insists that he is innocent, that even though he has an 8,000-square-foot home, complete with horse stables, a swimming pool, and a garage where he parks his Lexus, his family gets very little income and lives off of loans from friends.

"....Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal's office will cancel food stamp benefits for anyone who participated in a fraud and shopping spree catalyzed by an EBT malfunction....More than 12,000 people were sent an insufficient funds notice when the problem with the EBT cards was fixed on Oct. 12; those who transgressed may lose their EBT cards for a year....On October 11-12, at least 17 states experienced problems with their EBT card systems. In Springhill and Mansfield, Louisiana, cards indicated they had no spending limits, so EBT holders went wild with purchases..... The stores that were cheated are bound to come up with...

NEWARK— The owner of four dollar stores in Essex and Union counties pleaded guilty today to defrauding the food stamp program out of $5 million by letting customers use the federal subsidy to pay for electronic devices and other non-food items, prosecutors say.

(CN) - A man facing deportation should have been allowed to admit his delayed birth certificate into evidence, even though he may have obtained the document through fraud, the 9th Circuit ruled. Joseph Anderson Evans Sr. had been barred from using the certificate when he was tried in Washington for being an alien in the United States after deportation. Evans also faced a separate trial on 42 counts of fraudulently obtaining supplemental Social Security benefits, unlawfully acquiring food stamps, making a false claim of citizenship, and making a false statement in an application for a passport. Federal prosecutors said Evans...