An employee of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and five others have been arrested and charged in a $66 million food stamp fraud scheme.
“At [the] USDA, we are hyper-focused… on rooting out that waste, fraud and abuse, and… yesterday was, if not the largest, one of [the] largest stings,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said, according to Fox News.
“This is a new day, and President Trump promised, as he was traveling across the country over the last few years,” Rollins said, adding, “that it would not be the government that we know.”
The six suspects were arrested with assistance of the FBI and have been accused of a scheme that generated unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Michael Kehoe, Mohamad Nawafleh, Omar Alrawashdeh, Gamal Obaid, Emad Alrawashdeh and Arlasa Davis are accused of “conspiracy to steal government funds and to misappropriate U.S. Department of Agriculture benefits.”
“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. 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,” U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone said in a statement.
“These charges should be a reminder that those who exploit anti-poverty programs for personal gain will be held accountable for their crimes,” Carbone said.
The suspects could get between 5 and 15 years in jail if convicted.
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