Oh SNAP! Millions Of Taxpayer Dollars Blown On Free Food Fraud

A small Philadelphia corner grocery store is the scene of yet another example of squandered taxpayer money. In this case, “nearly $2 million” in food benefits meant for the hungry went to one person.

Store owner Jenny Espinal Tejada, 34, was sentenced this week to 18 months in prison. She must pay more than $1.8 million in restitution and forfeit “the proceeds of her offenses, for defrauding the U.S. government,” according to a press release from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania’s U.S. Attorney’s Office. Espinal Tejada “pleaded guilty in October to one count of wire fraud and one count of defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” (SNAP).

Here is how she did it, according to the attorney’s office:

“Espinal Tejada admitted that she used her small corner grocery store in Philadelphia to redeem SNAP benefits, even though she knew the store had not been approved to participate in SNAP as a merchant,” the press release reads.

According to the attorney’s office, Espinal Tejada “gained access to the program by misappropriating” identification numbers that “had been assigned” to stores participating in SNAP legitimately. She used these misappropriated numbers “to work around the rules of SNAP” and “abused the program by trading benefits for cash in her store.”

It is illegal to buy or sell SNAP benefits or to exchange them for anything other than eligible food items.

“Espinal Tejada sought to profit illicitly from the SNAP program, diverting nearly $2 million of the USDA’s money,” U.S. Attorney Romero said in the statement. “On behalf of the folks who rely on these resources every day — and the taxpayers who fund the programs — we and our partners will continue to prosecute abuses like this and ensure that those who commit them are held appropriately accountable.”

This was nearly $2 million at just one store. Investigators should keep looking because we know SNAP fraud is rampant.

In Buffalo, New York this week, a woman named Carmella Miller was sentenced to five years of probation, 200 hours of community service, and ordered to pay back more than $6,000 in restitution after being convicted of grand larceny and welfare fraud. Investigators said she hid information about her income and fraudulently collected SNAP. As a local NBC affiliate reported, officials said that for “nearly four years,” Miller “collected a total of $6,406 in public assistance benefits that she was not entitled to receive.”

In Minnesota, a Shakopee woman was charged with theft for “fraudulently collect[ing] more than $60,000 in public benefits while incarcerated,” according to a local Fox affiliate. This included $2,619 in SNAP, as well as “General Assistance … in the form of cash benefits and Medical Assistance.”  

A report from the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute describes another sort of SNAP fraud: “organized card-skimming schemes,” in which a SNAP cardholder swipes to pay for their food, and the magnetic stripe is skimmed for data.  

“In December 2022, Congress directed states to replace most stolen SNAP with federal funds,” according to a December release from the Institute. “Since then, the Massachusetts SNAP agency, the Department of Transitional Assistance …, has issued approximately $10 million federal dollars to replace stolen SNAP for about 21,000 households.”

When someone steals your wallet, no one gives you replacement cash. But under former President Joe Biden, starting in 2022, SNAP recipients were able to fill out a form and get replacement dollars on their card — as if there is a never-ending stash of cash somewhere. According to the USDA, “[c]ongressional authority to replace stolen benefits expired on Dec. 20, 2024.”

As my colleague Tristan Justice recently reported, SNAP has also been nutritionally misused. A recent report from the Foundation for Government Accountability noted — citing the latest USDA data from 2016 — that America spent “nearly twice as much on sweetened beverages than fruit with candy, sugary drinks, and desserts exceeding purchases of fruits and vegetables by more than $400 million.”

Between SNAP, free school breakfast and lunch, the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, senior food assistance, food banks, emergency food assistance, soup kitchens, church potlucks, and the kindness of neighbors, no one should go hungry in America.

The good people of the United States don’t want anyone to starve, but people who are starving don’t live on candy or trade away their food credit. SNAP needs an audit.

Beth Brelje is an elections correspondent for The Federalist. She is an award-winning investigative journalist with decades of media experience.