Editor: As is so often the case, I’ve been busy at Refugee Resettlement Watch as Republican governors are caving to the Open Borders Left and asking the President for MORE refugees this year. See RRW from time to time if you aren’t already.
One of my favorite scams earlier at RRW, and now at ‘Frauds and Crooks,’ is SNAP scam! That is when small stores and gas stations (most often owned by ‘new Americans’) traffic in food stamps. I’ve noticed fewer of them lately. I don’t know if that is because the most egregious cases have already been busted or whether the feds have slowed their investigations.
However, this isn’t about trafficking fraud, but about the couple collecting food stamp benefits while owning several gas stations. There may also be some Medicaid fraud mixed in, but that isn’t fully explained.
I hope the feds investigated their gas stations to ascertain if they also might be trafficking in food stamps!
BTW, I’ve traveled often through this part of South Jersey and I can say there are many, many foreign-owned and operated convenience stores and gas stations. Why is that?
From the Daily Journal:
Vineland couple in food stamp case say they don’t have to pay back money
BRIDGETON – A Vineland couple charged with taking thousands of dollars in an alleged food stamp scam are rejecting a plea deal, claiming a recent bankruptcy means they don’t have to pay back the money.
The couple, Mustafa Ozturk, 35, and Rahime Ozturk, 38, fraudulently received $26,128 in food stamps over several years while concealing that they owned gas stations in two states from the Cumberland County Division of Social Services, court records show.
They both appeared in Cumberland County Superior Court on Monday.
The couple, who have separate attorneys, were arraigned in November on a 16-count indictment alleging theft, conspiracy, and falsifying records.At Monday’s hearing before Judge Robert Malestein, county Assistant Prosecutor Shari-Ann Sasu said the state has offered the couple plea deals that would recommend probation instead of prison.
However, she said, the defendants would be required to pay back the county and the Ozturks are refusing.
Send them to jail then!
The Ozturks filed in federal Bankruptcy Court in October 2018 for Chapter 13 protection. The Division of Social Services already had completed its investigation by that time.
The division contacted the Prosecutor’s Office in February 2018 to report suspected Medicaid fraud, according to court records.
[….]
“I believe Mr. Ozturk’s of the position that, if he’s in bankruptcy, he shouldn’t have to pay anything back,” Sasu said. “So, the sticking point really is the money and restitution. I’m thinking a restitution hearing is coming at some point.”
Sigh…. more of the ‘new American’ entrepreneurs we are being told benefit our economy.
In CA and now in Nevada, most if not all of the small gas station/stores are managed by East Indian or Islamic families. Somehow the rich parents buy these stores and manage it themselves or send their children to the US to manage them. The reason being is that much of it is a cash business, and they can cook the books on cash taken in and keep that cash money aside and send it back to their family or put it in an account. They also take in food stamps for 1/2 the amount back in cash and send the food stamps in for redemption at the full face value. It is a big money maker and they all know it, just like they know to plead their life is in danger if they stay in their own country in order to gain access to the US.
Ann wrote: “BTW, I’ve traveled often through this part of South Jersey and I can say there are many, many foreign-owned and operated convenience stores and gas stations. Why is that?”
Because we have an immigration system that allows someone to “buy” their way into our country if they are going to create a business here.
So, they get a rich relative (or fund themselves) to buy an old gas station and convenience store.
My understanding is that the mid-eastern attorney who spoke against Trump at the 2016 Democratic convention had/has a business of connecting the real estate with the “new” Americans.
You are exactly right. A few years ago I dug deeper and found lawyers in the US connecting wannabe convenience store owners in places like Pakistan with real estate here. I actually think there is some massive funding pipeline to fund these purchases. There is US State Dept. program that makes it all possible. Why don’t Americans want these jobs—you can’t make money on a small store unless somehow you cheat and tap into the US Treasury. We don’t have a culture of cheating and they do.