PB man indicted by U.S. in food fraud
Another person was indicted this week in what federal prosecutors say was a widespread scheme to skim millions of dollars from a federal nutrition program for underprivileged children.
Cedric Tyrone Maxwell is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
According to the indictment, from February 2012 through June 2014, Maxwell was a sponsor for a feeding program though Shape Youth Services IT, through which he claimed to operate multiple sites to feed children in Pine Bluff.
The indictment accuses him of submitting multiple false claims for reimbursement in which he said he provided food at seven sites in the 2012 contract year, 13 sites for the 2013 contract year and nine sites in the 2014 contract year.
The claims resulted in
direct-deposit payments into his bank account from the U.S. Department of Agriculture after they were submitted through the state Department of Human Services, which administered the program.
Two former Human Services Department employees have admitted approving people as sponsors, and approving their proposed feeding sites, knowing neither the sponsors nor the sites were legitimate.
While the number of claims submitted varied from site to site in Maxwell’s case, the indictment says that between August 2012 and May 2013, he submitted 10 claims in which he falsely said he’d had an average daily attendance of 132 to 350 children at one site — Greater Fellowship Ministries.
In fact, the indictment
states, “no children were fed at this location.”
The indictment accuses Maxwell of participating in a scheme that stole $1,272,775 in federal funds by means of false and fraudulent pretenses.
In late February, Elbert Harris of Pine Bluff became the 16th person to be sentenced in the ongoing investigation that has so far uncovered the theft of at least $13 million from the program operated by the USDA’s Food and Nutrition Services.
Among the approximately 20 people indicted in the scheme since late 2014 are three people who were newly indicted this year.