U.S. Attorney for Mass. Announces Charges in $7M SNAP Trafficking Case, Says Shops Are Being Setup with the Sole Purpose of Exchanging SNAP Benefits for Cash

EXCERPT:

FOLEY: “We are announcing federal charges against two men, Antonio Bohneur and Saul Alisme, for large-scale SNAP benefit trafficking, a scheme that turned a program designed to feed families into a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise. SNAP benefits are also known as food stamps. The defendants are charged with one count of food stamp fraud. As alleged in the charging documents, these men abused one of the government's most critical safety net programs for their own financial gain. This is taxpayer money meant to keep people from going hungry. These defendants decided to take it for themselves. These defendants exchanged SNAP benefits for cash, which they pocketed. Bohneur, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Haiti, owned the Jesula Variety Store. Alisme, a lawful permanent resident also from Haiti, owned the Saul Mache Mixe Store. These two businesses were co-located within a single storefront in Boston. To be certain, these were not supermarkets. They were not full-service groceries. It would be a huge stretch to even call them convenience stores. In fact, the only thing convenient about these stores was how easy it was to commit SNAP benefit fraud.”