Not a just a Store: Also a US-Taxpayer mining operation

The indefatigable Refugee Resettlement Watch has a classic Food Stamp Fraud story today:

Here are the names of those charged in yet another immigrant food stamp fraud scheme (from Nyack-Piermont Patch):

Nissar Ahmed, 59, Shafaqat Ali, 46, Kusum Joshi, 48, Ansar Haniffa, 72, Balbir Singh, 62, Kavender Joshi, 49, Muneer Khan, 28,

For new readers, this is my side interest—food stamp fraud. If you don’t know how trafficking works, this Patch article has a simple definition:

According to the charges, for example, a customer would enter the store and ask the merchant for $60 in cash. The defendants would ring up a fictitious sale of $120 in qualifying groceries, and then pay out $60 in cash to the customer. The store’s account would subsequently be credited with $120 from the customer’s EBT SNAP account, providing the store a $60 profit on the illicit transaction. [and that $60 profit comes from you!—ed]

My theory is that there is a world-wide understanding (heck, there might even be training seminars on how to do it) that the trick is to get into the US on an investor visa, buy a mom & pop store and go into the food stamp scam business and rip off the dumb infidel American taxpayer!

Food stamp fraud: Nyack, NY this time January 17th, 2013

The Nyack-Piermont Patch article Nyack Store Owner, Clerks Charged in Food Stamp Fraud By William Demarest January 16, 2013 adds a further explication-

Supplemental Nutritional Aid Program (SNAP), more commonly known as food stamps…. is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance...

Individuals enrolled in the program are only allowed to purchase eligible items with their EBT cards, such as milk, bread and eggs. Recipients are not permitted to purchase items such as alcohol and cigarettes. They are also not allowed to obtain cash from merchants in exchange for SNAP benefits.

When next tempted to admire the industriousness of the ubiquitous immigrants operating convenience stores consider why these businesses are attractive.

Refugee Resettlement Watch has an immense collection of “Food Stamp Fraud” involving immigrants stories accessible via its search function here (the Food Stamp Fraud Tag is relatively new).