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[The Fuzz]

This is the kind of crackdown I like to see.....those who participate in abusing the system. 

http://www.freep.com/article/20110922/NEWS01/109220440/1001/news

The federal government is cracking down on food stamp fraud in metro Detroit, arresting nearly a dozen store owners in a recent sweep.

The suspects, authorities say, redeemed food stamps for everything from booze and clothing to appliances and furniture. Cash also was a hot trade-off.

In one case, for example, a store owner offered a 50% exchange range for food stamps: If a customer wanted $25 cash, the owner would charge $50 in food stamp benefits, court records indicate.

"Taxpayers in Michigan fund the food stamp program to provide food for the needy, not to create a commodity to be traded for profit," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said Wednesday in announcing the arrests.

According to McQuade, the sweep targeted the following businesses:

• Dollar City in Detroit. Owner Yousef Haddad of Canton was arrested on food stamp charges.

• Dollar & Party in Detroit. Owner Khalil Haddad of Canton was arrested and charged with food stamp fraud.

• Dollar Palace in Inkster. Owner Tony Gumma of Sterling Heights was arrested on wire fraud charges.

• H&J Fish Market in Detroit. Owner Jihad Sayed of Dearborn was arrested on wire fraud charges.

• Caesar Food Center in Detroit. Arrested and charged with food stamp fraud were store owner Ayad Yatooma of Shelby Township and Adnan Kejbou of Troy.

• King Cole Foods in Detroit. Owners Ghazi Manni of Sterling Heights and Adil Manni of West Bloomfield were arrested on food stamp fraud charges.

• Country Farm Market in Pontiac. Owners Kushaba and Philips Hermiz of Rochester were arrested and charged.

• 30th Street Market in Detroit. Owner Ursula Grigsby of Detroit was arrested on wire fraud charges.

The arrests were part of an ongoing effort by U.S. and state law enforcement, which launched a project to weed out food stamp traffickers in 2007.
 

[BigRedDog]

I wouldn't be surprised that a local investigation would turn up some abuse right here in our area

[The Fuzz]

I reckon you are right on that one.

These are a minute portion of the abuse of the systems.....but I applaud it regardless.

[ShorTea]

That's a good place to start, now if they just keep cleaning, all the way up the "food chain" there's probably more than enough money to cover the government and needed public services.

[The Fuzz]

I agree, but I hope the actual offenders who received the entitlements that traded them in or used them for the wrong intent are penalized in some fashion as well.

[eriemermaid]

I agree, but I hope the actual offenders who received the entitlements that traded them in or used them for the wrong intent are penalized in some fashion as well.

This is true Fuzz, but the reason they received those entitlements are probably still in cribs in their homes. 

[The Fuzz]

Yup, I know, and I am sensitive to that.....but still, it should not go unpunished.  It is abuse of the system.

[eriemermaid]

I agree.  The kids should be put in a home that takes care of them.  The rotter can go to jail!

[blue2]

Hum,  kind of interesting looking at the last names of the individuals involved.  Where do you suppose all the revenue ends up that these guys skim off the Americans.

[The Fuzz]

I couldn't help but to notice that as well blue2.

Just like the school lunch program fraud I posted last week.

Unbelievable.....and I know it's not in general, but the recent arrests do have a lot of foreign nationals in them. 

Why do they have to come here and defraud our systems....hell, we send plenty of money their way through foreign aid.   

[blue2]

Same nationality as the guy that owned 6 or 7 IHOP's in Toledo area that FBI raided yesterday.   I am growing more leary everyday of these guys from the MidEast.  I personally know a guy that owns 2 restaurants in Toledo that is from MidEast.  He pays everything under the table and pays no income tax.  He is not afraid of the government.  He says all they will do is try to send him back and that will take years.

[eriemermaid]

Some people, ALL nationalities, are proud of how they can rip US off.