Culturally Enriched Food Stamp Fraud

The following culturally enriched scamsters are all Somalis. There are three of them, but even so their scam has a Mohammed Coefficient of 100%.

Notice that their ingenious rackets managed to ring just about every bell in the welfare state carillon: food stamps, the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, WIC, federal welfare, rent subsidies, Medicaid, heating assistance, and even Pell Grants.

Here’s the story from Grand Rapids:

Prosecutor: Store Owner Accused of Massive Food-Stamp Fraud Also Had Government Assistance for His Family

GRAND RAPIDS – After reporting low income and virtually no assets, the government says, Ahmed Sheikh Mohamed got help for food, housing, heating, medical treatment and college costs for his family.

He didn’t disclose that his small Grand Rapids grocery store deposited $800,000 from 2006 to 2009. Or, that he made $60,000 annually in food-stamp fraud. Or, that he routinely moved cash in a business account to an account for personal spending, which included a $15,000 family vacation in Mecca, the government said.

“The principal goal of the conspiracy was to obtain money by defrauding federal programs intended to provide food, housing, medical care and underprivileged,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler wrote recently in a court document.

The investigation, which led to charges against Mohamed and two others, was one of at least five in the last year in the Grand Rapids area targeting stores that trade electronic food stamps for cash and ineligible items. Enforcement action last year in Michigan convinced the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the benefit program, to provide a $3.3 million grant to fight fraud and abuse in the food-assistance program.

[…]

In the latest Grand Rapids case, the government alleged that Mohamed, his son, Mohamed Isse, and his nephew, Abdulrahman Hassan Mohamed, owned or operated Rayan Phone Cards and Grocery, a small store that catered to the Somali immigrant community, and conspired to defraud the government's food-stamp program. [emphasis added]

The defendants have all pleaded not guilty.

Kessler, the federal prosecutor, said the nephew became an authorized redeemer for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, or SNAP. The father, in applying for assistance, said he worked as a $7.50-an-hour meat cutter at the store, the government in court documents.

“This allowed Ahmed to conceal the substantial income he derived from the store, so he could fraudulently apply for and receive federal welfare, housing, medical and educational benefits for himself and various members of his family,” Kessler wrote, in an indictment.

The government alleged $474,000 in food-stamp fraud.

It also said Mohamed and his family wrong received $46,605 in SNAP benefits; $4,313 in Women, Infant and Children benefits; $44,873 in rent subsidies; $57,963 in Medicaid benefits; $300 in emergency heating assistance; and $24,678 in Pell Grants.

For a complete listing of previous enrichment news, see The Cultural Enrichment Archives.

Hat tip: JBP.