NEW YORK (WALA) – Six people are now charged with a huge fraud and bribery scam targeting food stamps — including an employee of the USDA, the government agency that oversees food stamp benefits, authorities in New York City said.
The fraud and bribery scheme is one of the largest food stamp frauds in U.S. history and generated more than $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), according to the U.S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Authorities said the group setup a network that supplied approximately 160 unauthorized Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) terminals to stores across the New York area. Those terminals then illegally processed more than $30 million in EBT transactions, authorities said.
The USDA employee charged in the scheme actually worked in the division responsible for identifying food stamp fraud and is accused of selling hundreds of EBT license numbers enabling more than $36 million in fraudulent SNAP redemptions at unauthorized stores, according to the DOJ. In return, the USDA employee received substantial bribes that were disguised in communications as, among other things, “birthday gifts” and “flowers,” according to federal prosecutors.
Earlier this month, FOX10 News highlighted the nationwide scamming of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in our special reports, Faces of the Forgotten.
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Thousands of Alabamians have had millions of dollars stolen from their EBT accounts and for the last five months they have not been reimbursed.
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