Posted on 02/16/2018 8:16:42 AM PST by SeekAndFind
A couple years ago, someone who stole $3.5 million from the government food stamps program was sentenced to...one year in jail.
WORCESTER – A federal judge Monday sentenced a local woman to a year in jail and ordered her to forfeit $3.5 million and pay restitution in what lawyers said was the largest food stamp fraud case in Massachusetts history.
Vida Ofori Causey, 46, owner of J&W Aseda Plaza at 753 Main St., pleaded guilty in December to charges of conspiracy to commit Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits fraud, SNAP fraud, and money laundering in a $3.6 million cash-for-benefits scheme.
The scheme involved buying food stamps for 50 cents on the dollar while charging the government the full value of the benefit. In a four-year period, Mrs. Causey rang through more than $3.6 million worth of benefits from a three-aisle convenience store in Main South.
The Worcester Telegram story is pretty emblematic of the widespread level of fraud out there in the federal food stamp program and, as the left howled, probably why the Trump administration moved to change half the benefit from food stamps to food boxes. Food boxes are quite a bit harder to offload to store owners for cash at the local convenience store.
But oh, how the left howled, effectively taking a stand for fraudsters.
Actually, the fraud is pretty typical. Breitbart News, in its story titled "The Seven Biggest Takedowns of Food Stamp Fraud in 2017," notes that most of the miscreants caught were convenience store owners who bought food stamps at a discount for cash – say, 50 cents on the dollar – and then got reimbursed by the government for the full cash-value amount.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
The kids eat every meal they get at school, because there isn’t anything to eat at home…in spite of their worthless mother getting SNAP cards every month. She and her boyfiend (not a typo) use them for booze and drugs.
Meh. Food boxes will cost even more taxpayer dollars.
I see people using their EBT cards while they’re texting on their iPhone X, and then they go out and get into their Escalade. These are the people that need to be taken off the food stamp roles. I’d be willing to bet that these are people that make most of their money under the table.
I’m sorry, but we are going to have to start hanging thieves.
There are too many of them and they aren’t afraid of jail.
Look at Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren.
Blatant thieves running for and winning public office.
We need to start hanging thieves.
1) There is NO provision in the constitution for the FedGov to provide food, housing, clothing, power, communications, etc, etc, etc to ANYONE.
2) Personally, I have no problem with feeding the hungry, but they should be able to buy FOOD only with my tax dollars; not anything else - and not high dollar luxuries.
Close the WHOLE program today.
Let’s not stop w/food boxes.
Let’s turn the clock back and make only US produced foods eligible for food stamps.
That’s the original stipulation of the program.
Globalists on Wall Street hijacked subsequent food stamp legislation.
Actual “food stamps” have not been used for an awfully long time,now, so we need to use the proper terminology.
Here in FL, EBT cards are credited 2x per month, on the 1st and the 15th at 12:01 am. If you look at security camera footage for Walmart or any big grocery chain, you will see folks with 3 or 4 carts stacked high with cases of Coke, or Pepsi products, or anything else that can later be fenced, waiting for midnight to toll. They loiter near the registers until the EBT credit has cleared, they buy the fungible goods, and then go to a convenience store and sell the cases of soda or other items to the owner for 50 cents on the dollar. Then they take the proceeds and buy drugs.
The plan to deliver meals will eliminate this problem.
Here in PA they had a scam in LeHigh Valley, over 280 thousand dollars in food stamps for heroin.
Get a rope!
Do away with food stamps and just help fund the local food banks. If you are hungry you go stand in line and they give you food. Its a good way to find out fast who is teaslly needy.
That’s an awful!right sentence for 3.5 million theft. Who says crime doesn’t pay?
iwth the old food stamp system, owners of food stamps could go into a convenience store & by a 1 cent piece of gum or 2 cent piece of hard candy, etc ...for purpose of receiving 99 cents pocket change, then use all the change they could accumulate to buy a quart of beer.....or more....or drugs. The debit card system actually was meant probably to prevent this, but the card itself could be sold....or the food bought with the card could be sold.......which is what can & will happen if you go to a food bank system where people receive free food, they then may sell to raise money for booze or drugs.
There’s no way to prevent this under any system of government charity using taxpayer money for a non public purpose .
excellent idea!
I worked at a Winn Dixie back in the mid 70’s as a cashier and stock clerk.
You were absolutely forbidden to give cash as change.
We kept penny and nickel candy in the drawer beneath our registers to give as change.
Never cash.
Food boxes my ass, Soup Kitchens and Bread Lines, Gubmint Cheese. GET A JOB!! Only the truly needy deserve my charity, not the Lazy and Stupid.
A lot of ladies use their EIB cards to get their nails and hair done.
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