XPost: alt.politics.republicans, talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   XPost: alt.government.employees   
   From: old_dei_skank@nygov.com   
      
   President Donald Trump’s administration busted a $66 million food   
   stamp fraud ring in New York.   
      
   U.S. Department of Agriculture employee Arlasa Davis had one job:   
   stop food stamp fraud. Instead, she allegedly accepted bribes and   
   caused $36 million of fraud over three years by sharing government   
   data.   
      
   The Department of Justice charged six people for stealing over $66   
   million in food stamps from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance   
   Program in late May.   
      
   Every year, the federal government gives billions of dollars to   
   poor Americans who spend that money at over 250,000 licensed   
   retailers ranging from grocery stores to bodegas.   
      
   The SNAP program uses federal tax dollars to help low-income   
   households purchase food using Electronic Benefit Transfer cards.   
   The federal government licenses stores to use EBT terminals to   
   process EBT funds from the bank account to the store’s account.   
      
   The alleged criminal ring – Michael Kehoe, Mohamad Nawafleh, Omar   
   Alrawashdeh, Gamal Obaid, Emad Alrawashdeh, and Arlasa Davis – are   
   charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and to   
   misappropriate USDA benefits.   
      
   In 2019, Kehoe supplied 160 unauthorized EBT terminals to smoke   
   shops and other ineligible stores across the New York area to   
   illegally process more than $30 million in EBT transactions.   
      
   The crime ring submitted about 200 fraudulent USDA applications,   
   misappropriating USDA license numbers and, in some cases, doctoring   
   application documents, to obtain EBT terminals for unauthorized   
   stores.   
      
   The criminals sold hundreds of EBT license numbers enabling over   
   $36 million in fraudulent SNAP redemptions at unauthorized stores.   
   Davis photographed lists of license numbers intended for qualifying   
   stores and texted them to someone who sold them to co-conspirators,   
   who then used those license numbers to fraudulently obtain EBT   
   terminals for stores that were not authorized by the USDA to   
   process SNAP transactions.   
      
   The criminals could face decades in prison.   
      
   “Michael Kehoe and his co-conspirators misappropriated tens of   
   millions of dollars in taxpayer funds meant to help low-income   
   families put food on the table,” said U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone.   
   “This fraud was made possible when USDA employee Arlasa Davis   
   betrayed the public trust by selling confidential government   
   information to the very criminals she was supposed to catch.  Their   
   actions undermined a program that vulnerable New Yorkers depend on   
   for basic nutrition.”   
      
   https://townhall.com/tipsheet/scott-mcclallen/2025/08/02/she-was-   
   hired-to-stop-food-stamp-fraud-she-helped-steal-36-million-instead-   
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