In some massive news from the US Department of Agriculture, it was announced that six individuals, one of them a USDA bureaucrat, had been indicted in connection with a “sprawling” scheme involving fraud and bribery of tens of millions of dollars’ worth of food stamps, making it one of the largest such schemes in American history.
Such is what was announced by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York in a Thursday, May 29, press release titled “USDA Employee And Five Others Charged In Multimillion-Dollar Food Stamp Fraud And Bribery Scheme.” In the press release, the office explained how the fraud happened and who was involved.
Beginning, the press release noted that the DOJ has just indicted “six individuals in connection with a sprawling fraud and bribery scheme that generated over $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”)—colloquially known as food stamps.”
Continuing, the press release noted the massive scope of the fraud and named the six defendants involved in stealing tens of millions of dollars from American taxpayers, also noting which defendant was the corrupt bureaucrat. It said, “This is one of the largest food stamp frauds in U.S. history. The defendants—MICHAEL KEHOE, MOHAMAD NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, GAMAL OBAID, EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, and ARLASA DAVIS—are charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and to misappropriate U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) benefits, among other charges. DAVIS, a USDA employee, is additionally charged with bribery and honest services fraud.”
Then, describing in brief detail how the SNAP program works, which is relevant to how the fraudulent scheme was conducted, the press release noted that SNAP involves the use of what are essentially government-provided and funded debit cards to buy certain types of food from from some stores.
Turning from that description of the program to how the fraud happened, the press release noted, “Starting in 2019, KEHOE orchestrated a network that supplied approximately 160 unauthorized EBT terminals to stores across the New York area to illegally process more than $30 million in EBT transactions. Working with his codefendants NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, OBAID, and EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, KEHOE submitted approximately 200 fraudulent USDA applications, misappropriating USDA license numbers and, in some cases, doctoring application documents, to obtain EBT terminals for unauthorized stores—including smoke shops and other ineligible businesses.”
Building on that, the press release noted how the corrupt bureaucrat was integral to the sprawling fraud scheme, saying, “Critical to the scheme was ARLASA DAVIS, a longtime USDA employee who worked within the very division of the USDA responsible for identifying SNAP fraud. DAVIS abused her privileged access to federal systems to sell hundreds of EBT license numbers enabling over $36 million in fraudulent SNAP redemptions at unauthorized stores.”
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Further, it added that she received bribes in eschange for yet more aid in the scheme, saying, “DAVIS photographed handwritten lists of license numbers intended for qualifying stores with her personal cellphone and funneled them to an intermediary who sold them to co-conspirators, including NAWAFLEH, OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, and OBAID, who then used those license numbers to fraudulently obtain EBT terminals for stores that were not authorized by the USDA to process SNAP transactions. In return, DAVIS received substantial bribes that were disguised in communications as, among other things, ‘birthday gifts’ and ‘flowers.'”
U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins commented on the case by saying that while this one is massive, it is just one of many schemes and many more will be uncovered as the Trump Administration digs into the massive, ongoing fraud. She said, “This is not the one and only. There are going to be many more to come, and we’re gonna make sure that we’re delivering on our promises to the taxpayers.”
Fraud was also recently discovered at the Kennedy Center in DC, as was announced by a key Trump ally here: