Arkansas Food Stamp Fraud Bust Reveals Some Clever Twists on the Common Scam

01/15/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

You probably saw this news last month. I know I saw it in several places because more news outlets have come to discover this type of fraud usually involving convenience stores and those Mom & Pop gas stations with the small grocery attached.
(Last year CNS News published a very useful report about how most SNAP fraud occurs in small grocery stores/convenience stores.***)

we accept snap — Last summer USA Today published the top 25 Food Stamp use cities in America. Some will surprise you! Have a look: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/07/25/snap-benefits-cities-with-most-people-on-food-stamps/37017367/

I suspect the prevalence of “new Americans” behind the counters of these small stores has something to do with the E-2 investor visa our government gives out regularly to foreign ‘investors.’
See the list of countries from which we are importing new American businessmen.
With an investment sometimes less than $100,000 a Pakistani, for instance, can buy a small store with the help of US lawyers who walk them through the process of getting in here with an investor visa.
Seriously search E-2 investor visa and you will find pages of law firms advertising their prowess in getting immigrants set up in business.
But many of the new American entrepreneurs aren’t willing to wait to build up their enterprises the old fashioned way, they have become experts at ripping off the US taxpayer—like these crooks who plead guilty in Arkansas last month.
From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette,

3 guilty pleas entered to food-stamp fraud in Arkansas

Raja Khani Zaman and his son Haroon pleaded guilty Wednesday before Western Arkansas Chief U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III to conspiracy to traffic in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [food stamps] benefits, conspiracy to commit money laundering and filing false income-tax returns.
Another man, Ahmed Zaman, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in food-stamp program benefits.
After the plea hearings, all three were released on $5,000 signature bonds. Sentencing will follow completion of a presentence investigation.
They face up to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000 on the food-stamp trafficking charge, 20 years and a fine up to $500,000 on the money-laundering charge, and up to three years and a fine up to $100,000 on the tax-return charge.

More complex tricks!

Rather than the usual method of simply buying benefits from a customer desperate for cash at the going rate of 50 cents on the dollar, the Zamans used a variety of schemes to turn your money in to their money.

The plea agreements listed multiple ways in which the men violated the food-stamp program. They would allow beneficiaries to use their food-stamp cards to buy items prohibited under the program at twice the price of the items.
They would take beneficiaries, or send them, to other stores to use their cards to purchase items for resale in the Zamans’ convenience stores, then pay the recipients 50 cents cash for every dollar they spent.
The government said the Zamans committed money laundering by reselling products in their convenience stores that were purchased elsewhere for them by cooperating food-stamp recipients, according to court records.

Continue reading here.
Just so you know the person selling his or her benefits is also in legal jeopardy and I am beginning to see cases where they are prosecuted too.
That’s enough for now, I’ve given you some previews of what we will be discussing going forward as these kinds of cases are busted by the feds.
***Here is the chart from the CNS story I mentioned above. Note that the vast majority of food stamp fraud occurs in small groceries and convenience stores.

chart of small grocery fraud

I’ve been following food stamp fraud stories for years, click here at RRW and you will see some incredible ones that make these Arkansas scammers look like amateurs.

Almost never is a photo available of the perps. Why is that I wonder?

The facts on Immigrant Crime Published in NJ Newspaper

01/15/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 8 Comments

And, not only that! The Trentonian, via an opinion piece by David Neese, reminds its readers in blue New Jersey about statements from politicians past that should have earned them (at least) a wrist slap from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

bernie and barack — So where was the Southern Poverty Law Center when we needed them?

You have heard the comments repeatedly lately, but I will bet a buck most Dems outside of the DC beltway have no idea both Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders were so vocal in their demands for border security!
Maybe I’m too hard on the mainstream media! Sometimes they come through with the truth!
The Trentonian:

Provocation: Documented facts about ‘undocumented’

Using at least two words that are now verboten in proper Washington circles, writer Neese begins with a little provocation about the hypocrisy that is driving us nuts these days! (Emphasis is mine)

Surely it was a white supremacist — or at a minimum a xenophobic bigot — who brazenly uttered these words: “We simply can’t allow people to pour into the United States undetected, unchecked, circumventing the people who are waiting patiently, diligently, lawfully to become immigrants in the country.”
But, lo and behold, these were not the words of some slope-browed yahoo driving around in a pickup with a confederate decal on the rear window right by the gun rack.
These were the words of none other than Barack Obama, spoken in 2005.
Okay, but surely the following words, spoken in 2007, were the sentiments of a Klan rabble-rouser:
“I don’t know why we need millions of people to be coming into the country who will work for lower wages than America works and drive down wages even lower than they are now.”
Nope, not Klan words. Those were the words of Bernie Sanders, socialist tribune for the toiling proletariat.

Then he gets to the numbers that no one should ignore:

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) puts out a report called “Criminal Alien Statistics.” The 2018 edition notes 208,800 criminal aliens in state and federal prisons, doing time for an assortment of felonies at a taxpayer cost of $1.4 billion annually.
That seems like a lot of offenders behind bars if immigrant crime is merely, as frequently asserted, a “dog-whistle” term the Know Nothings employ to incite resentment of brown people.
Looking at a sample of 197,000 criminal aliens, the GAO reports an average 10 criminal offenses per alien among this group. Ten!
For the period roughly 2011-2016, the GAO reports the following number of offenses by illegal aliens:

— Drugs: 761,200 state, 336,600 federal.

— Assaults: 397,000 state, 108,400 federal.

— Weapons: 124,709 state, 44,500 federal.

— Sex offenses: 120,300 state, 13,600 federal.

— Robberies: 54,700 state, 13,500 federal.

— Homicides: 50,300 state, 6,000 federal.

— Kidnappings: 18,600 state, 5,000 federal.

Go here to read it all.
Thank you Mr. Neese and The Trentonian. (If you are wondering, I don’t know David Neese.)
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Looking for something to do? Get Neese’s piece circulating on social media. Not my post, but his original (here) and consider contacting The Trentonian to thank them for publishing it.

Nigerian Fraudster Indicted for Stealing Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Funds

01/14/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

The news of Olanrewaju A. Beyioku’s arrest in November was reported in local news and in one large news outlet—the Chicago Tribune. The story in the suburbs section of the Tribune does not mention the ‘new American’ status of the “Indiana man” the feds indicted in December.
However, the Nigerians are not so shy about identifying him as Nigerian. See LailasNews.com and don’t miss the comments where Nigerians say he brings shame to Nigeria.

nigerian defrauds red cross — Olanrewaju A. Beyioku

You have to hand it to them, Nigerians are clever scammers.
I’m posting a good bit of the Dept. of Justice press release from December 20th (hat tip: Diana) so you can see how the 38-year-old Beyioku was one of many who together scammed the American Red Cross out of more than a million dollars intended for Hurricane Harvey victims.
From the Department of Justice, Northern District of Indiana,

HAMMOND- Olanrewajua A. Beyioku, 38, of Gary, Indiana, was charged in an indictment with wire fraud, announced U.S. Attorney Kirsch.
U.S. Attorney Kirsch said, “At a time when individuals were going through some of the worst times in their lives, Mr. Beyioku seized the opportunity to enrich himself with hurricane relief funds meant for those who lost homes and businesses. My Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to investigate those who defraud the government for personal gain.”
The Indictment alleges that, in September and October 2017, Beyioku, a.k.a. “Papa Smith Morgan,” working in conjunction with others, known and unknown to the United States Attorney, devised a scheme to defraud the American Red Cross (“Red Cross”) by obtaining reference codes intended for nine different households directly impacted by Hurricane Harvey, and by using those codes to obtain $3,600 in hurricane relief funds.
[….]
One type of federal disaster relief was a one-time cash payment of $400 through the Red Cross. The Red Cross established a link on their website where hurricane victims could apply for the cash assistance. Hurricane victims used their email addresses to apply. They entered personally identifiable information, including their address. If the address fell within a designated disaster area, The Red Cross forwarded the application electronically to an entity referred to herein as “Company A.”
Company A vetted the information, and electronically forwarded it to “Company B.” Company B then created an eleven-digit alphanumeric code. The code was then sent to the applicant with instructions to redeem the code at a Wal-Mart Money Center or Customer Service Desk.
In early September 2017, The Red Cross received reports of ineligible people redeeming multiple reference codes at various Wal-Mart stores across the United States. The Red Cross reported this to the National Center for Disaster Fraud (“NCDF”). With assistance from Wal-Mart Global Security Investigators, The Red Cross identified over 3,300 instances of fraudulently obtained reference codes. The loss to The Red Cross is more than 1.3 million dollars.

See the remainder of the press release by clicking here. The feds don’t identify him as Nigerian either.
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So why didn’t this story make the national news? Because it is not a warm and fuzzy story about New Americans! And, by the way, which LEGAL immigration program did Beyioku use to get in here in the first place?

Are You Writing a Blog Where You Live?

01/14/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 7 Comments

Two weeks in to this new blog—Frauds, Crooks and Criminals—I’m reminded of all the great work many of you do researching issues where you live, national issues too!
But, are you getting that important information out on a local or state website? If not, why not!
You know that information is power, right! However, it has little value if it doesn’t reach outside your front door or go much farther than your facebook friends’ computers.

free speech zone map — They will have a harder time shutting down free speech if you all are writing!

Believe me, it is not rocket science to set up a wordpress website, or some other hosting site. I do think facebook is a good way to get your research/ideas out more widely, but facebook has limitations and will increasingly give you problems.
And, besides, on facebook, I don’t think there is any way to categorize and make available the information you have unearthed for someone to find months or years later (correct me if I am wrong).
Which brings me to the issue of comments here at Frauds and Crooks. Believe me! Most people will not read comments longer than my original posts! Heck, I hardly have time to read them! (See my comment on commenting under the header.)
Budding investigators! Please, please, please, set up a website/blog of your own!
Give your blog a theme, it could be on the vast issue of immigration (obviously my passion), or focus on your geographic location. Write a blog about what is going on in your city or state (LOL! compete with your Left leaning local paper that won’t even publish your Letters to the Editor!).
Plug away at it a little bit every day and you will be surprised at the body of information you will have compiled in a few short months.

The speech police will have a much harder time silencing us if all of you are writing!

Let me know when you’ve got that new blog of your own up and running!
Endnote: If you are new to Frauds and Crooks, see my welcome post here.

Child Brides! When Legal Immigration Must be Fixed

01/13/201909/21/2019 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Thanks to a reader for sending this news from the Associated Press.

screenshot (828) — Photo: No excuse for child brides in Europe! (Not in US either!) https://www.thedailybeast.com/theres-no-excuse-for-child-brides-in-europe

Did you know that our LEGAL immigration system allows children, mostly girls, to be exploited through a form of immigration that allows old men to import child brides?
And, it allows children in the US to bring in ‘husbands’ much older than themselves.
Frankly, I don’t see any defense for this flaw in our immigration system, and it seems it could easily be fixed through administrative action immediately, and ultimately by Congress when those do-nothings get around to doing something.
From the AP (emphasis is mine):

WASHINGTON — Thousands of requests by men to bring in child and adolescent brides to live in the United States were approved over the past decade, according to government data obtained by The Associated Press.
In one case, a 49-year-old man applied for admission for a 15-year-old girl.
The approvals are legal: The Immigration and Nationality Act does not set minimum age requirements. And in weighing petitions for spouses or fiancees, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services goes by whether the marriage is legal in the home country and then whether the marriage would be legal in the state where the petitioner lives. [What the heck! Why should we consider the legality of the arrangement in their home country! Whiff of creeping sharia here?—ed]

Fraidy Reiss of Unchained at Last is working to end child marriage. http://www.unchainedatlast.org/

[….]
There were more than 5,000 cases of adults petitioning on behalf of minors and nearly 3,000 examples of minors seeking to bring in older spouses or fiances, according to the data requested by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2017 and compiled into a report.
Some victims of forced marriage say the lure of a U.S. passport combined with lax U.S. marriage laws are partly fueling the petitions.
[….]
The data was requested in 2017 by Johnson and then-Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, the committee’s top Democrat. Johnson said it took a year to get the information, showing there needs to be a better system to track and vet the petitions.
“Our immigration system may unintentionally shield the abuse of women and children,” the senators said in the letter.
[….]
The head of USCIS, L. Francis Cissna, said in a letter to the committee that its request had raised questions and discussion within the agency on what it can do to prevent forced minor marriages.
The agency noticed some issues in how the data was collected and has resolved them. Officials also created a flagging system that requires verification of the birthdate whenever a minor is detected.
The country where most requests came from was Mexico, followed by Pakistan, Jordan, the Dominican Republic and Yemen. Middle Eastern nationals had the highest percentage of overall approved petitions.