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USDA Employee And Five Others Charged In Multimillion-Dollar Food Stamp Fraud And Bribery Scheme

New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced the unsealing of a Superseding Indictment charging 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.

his 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.

According to the Indictment, statements made in public court proceedings and filings, and the evidence at trial:

The SNAP program uses federal tax dollars to help low-income households purchase food. SNAP recipients use Electronic Benefit Transfer (“EBT”) cards—similar to debit cards—to buy food at participating stores. Those stores, which get license numbers from the USDA, use special EBT terminals to swipe the EBT cards. When a SNAP recipient swipes their EBT card, the system verifies the transaction and electronically deducts the purchase amount from the recipient’s account. The corresponding federal funds are then transferred to the store’s bank account.

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.

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. 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.”

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KEHOE, 46, of Long Island, New York; NAWAFLEH, 34, of the Bronx, New York; OMAR ALRAWASHDEH, 37, of the Bronx, New York; OBAID, 39, of the Bronx, New York; EMAD ALRAWASHDEH, 37, of the Bronx, New York; and DAVIS, 56, of Gardiner, New York, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to steal government funds and misappropriate USDA benefits, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of theft of government funds, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and one count of misappropriation of USDA benefits, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. DAVIS is additionally charged with one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, one count of bribery, which carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, and one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. NAWAFLEH is additionally charged with one count of failure to appear, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

The maximum sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendants will be determined by the judge.

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60 Comments

  • Paula Jackson

    What happened to all the peoples stamps that were stolen in the south specifically Georgia?

  • John Reneau

    Just wondering if they will have to repay for the thief’s plus penalties and interest.??? People need to know and demand that their assets are seized

  • Delbert Hyland

    These people need to be put to work on a farm and 90 percent of thier wages to be used to pay thier fine and restitution

  • LordPiddlepuck

    Yet, elites like ex-NFL superstar Brett Favre and Senator Rick Scott walk away without being charged. Where’s the outrage? Justice should be served to ALL!

  • Hiz Jewel

    But Brett Favre can steal from the poor and no charges. He was involved in one of the biggest welfare schemes in his home state of Mississippi.They have witnesses and his text messages.

  • Liz P

    FBI doing their job. No outside non federal employees needed. Wink wink
    Now, good job, but please do not punish actual people who need this program because of the above greedy ones.

  • Tenisha sanders

    Having your cash benefits taken and then get a denial notice and my funds were taking out thru a Wells Fargo bank not replaced and disappointed sweet 16 for my daughter

  • CR

    Hi, will the victims in GA get reimbursed of stolen benefits? It is not fair for anyone to have something stolen from them especially something that is a necessity for some families who cannot afford to buy their groceries with cash money or credit cards.

  • Ace

    We never received them. Mine was stolen and .y kids went hungry that month and a birthday was missed😔

  • Logetty

    The blame on the poor taking tax payers money is truly unfair.

    The poor are continously in need because those in position to provide has greed that can never be satisfied.

  • Markus

    So does that mean a liberal NY judge will slap them on the wrist, give them time served and make them promise never to do it again?

  • William Trustworthy

    The liberal NY judge will probably apologize to these criminals. George Soros owns all these liberal judges and DAs especially in NY. However this is a federal crime so hopefully they go to jail. They deserve jail time Shame on them. In Massachusetts the Governor got rid of the entire fraud department. Everyone needs to vote Republican

  • Peterson

    ” Unscrupulous , greedy people one of the reasons the poor stays poor!”. When will we learn to be satisfied & honest workers? It gives credence to the government to shut down programs to help struggling Americans! Shame, shame, shame!

  • Jack

    This will keep continuing to happen to our politicians start doing their jobs, and our das start doing their jobs and prosecutors start doing their jobs and prosecute these people to the fullest, 20 years, no less and everything they own should be confiscated. And most of the time, it’s people working within their agencies that are helping these people

  • Erica Walker

    I am glad they caught them I will never forget they took my stamps and left me with 81 cent. Food is high I have disability child and my self. I call the White House. I stay here in Memphis,Tennessee. All transactions from New York New York the people told us at department human services it took them months to replace them.

  • Sharon

    so much fraud! Please judge,throw the book at them! In Kansas, total household income must be considered when obtaining food stamps. Social workers never bother to investigate extra people in the household: that $80,000/yr. pipeline welder boyfriend and that beef packing relative that earns $55,000. for KS- Huge amounts of money, 3 fancy vehicles outside their house. and receiving food stamps.

  • Patricia A Williams

    I think they should be given life in prison without parole. That’s a good reason to not have long term jobs with the federal government. Once they learn those jobs they can’t help but to go for the money. I’ll bet there were more people involved.

  • Emily B

    They should get full term maximum sentencing.. especially sad that the funds they stole from families recently were often not replaced or reissued either.

  • Cathy Johnson

    About 3 years ago I reported food stamps fraud to children and families. I knew a man with an EBT card with over 13,000 I kept the receipt. I couldn’t believe my eyes just unbelievable. How could this happen but it did. And the children and families employee I spoke with didn’t care and refused to investigate this matter. People like my self on Social Security don’t get enough for one day.

  • Anonymous

    These mugs are in Seattle NOW HITTING UP SAFEWAYS, A CHECKER NAMED LEE… IF CAUGHT ITS 875 MILL A WEEK I HEARD .. AGAIN ROUND FOUR OR SO…. YOULL KNOW HE ASK IF FOOD STAMPS B4 STARTING AND DORKS AROUND UNTIL U TURN AWAY AND DOES SOMETHING…. THE BALANCE IS ALWAYS 150 TOO HIGH THEN IT DROPS TO LIKE 50 TOO MUCH AND NO Receipt BUT STORE MANAGER GANGSTALKS ABOUT IT AND FEW DAYS LATER A Mini .04$

  • Anonymous

    It’s repeating , maybe you all can push longer sentences or after twice caught death penalty…. My nation zero tolerance and 2nd up dead, should of been on first….

  • Pamela

    So were the funds recovered or are these individuals, once released, and their families going to live lavish lifestyles??! Smh

  • Anthony

    They’ll probably get a slap on the hand ,this goes on all through government these guys probably didn’t pay off someone and that’s how they got caught they need to just clean the government out completely and put in all new workers and make them take a lie detectors test every month to see if they’re stealing or anything corrupt ,what do we need government for anyways they’re slowly killing everyo

  • Carol Sundarsingh

    Three times .my food stamps in the sum of almost $1200.00 were stolen and could not be replaced. I live in Staten island!

  • Shadrain Marbury

    My benefits were loaded in account and posted the day of and deducted as of the next
    day 200.00 gone.

  • Cindy James

    We all know that the DA will accept plead deals for all of them and they’ll probably get probation. That’s the way the New York judicial system seems to work.

  • Anonymous

    Well, they don’t give their own Citizens hardly anything and it appears that 4 of these People are of a different Nationality and though it’s wrong, none the less, I guess somebody got some of them. They give all kinds of Aid to other Countries, but refuse to give their own Citizens a Stimulus Check, from the time Covid was PUT OUT!

  • Nancy Gillespie

    I live in Oklahoma they got me 2 months
    900 each month. I’m a grandmother with 2 grandsons to raise. It took all my savings and had to get a few loans. Lock them up

  • Sharon

    The majority of those names have something in common.

    Maybe ICE needs to be involved with this case.

  • Vanessa draine

    Now that you have the people that took the benefits why are participants being penalized give us our sense back please

  • Veronica

    They are most likely connected with the stealing of food stamps off of people’s cards cleaning them completely out leaving their families to go hungry!

  • Trevor k

    All these scumbags should get the maximum, with restitution, hard labor and NO BAIL.keep these suckers behind bars. Better, if they sent to El Salvador prison. Cheaper there than keeping their ROSTON asses in US.

  • Shika Reid

    I guess they the ones that all the stamps down south between Georgia Alabama n Mississippi, think about it all transactions was accumulated in New York smh 🤦🏽‍♀️ I knew it was an inside job!!

  • Frederick

    Why would Anybody want to steal from working tax payers in America is beyond my Understanding?

  • Sandra Lawson

    I did not get any stamps in April but I report it but nothing got done about it. I now you won’t still nobody food stamps they need to keep you in jail for good people need food and u taking from people.

  • Jamair Finks

    Im not surprised at all. It seems to me the foreigners that comes to this land gets more opportunities, more benefits, loans and jobs for more easier than the american citizen. They commit alot of white collar crimes, fraud, and other offenses due to us putting them in position to do so. If you go to alot of these countries these people are from the biggest crimes they commit us fraud. No surprise

  • ST

    Why dies itvtake millions of dollars on fraudulent activities before these people are apprehended. But if an individual receiving these benefits legitimately fail to provide a weeks employment, their benefit are stopped immediately. The system doesn’t make sense.

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