Food-stamp scammers stole $200K, state says
For more than a year, investigators say, a foodstamp scam meant some of the neediest in Florida couldn’t get the help they needed to feed their families.
Eurick Fenot, 32, and Quentaria Williams, 22, are accused of stealing hundreds of identities of Florida residents and using them to apply for public assistance, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater said at a news conference Wednesday.
The Orlando couple then allegedly took the fraudulently obtained cards and cashed them in at Los Primos Meat Market in Apopka. Using this method, the two stole nearly $200,000 from the state, Atwater said.
In total, Fenot and Williams created about 800 food-stamp applications with the state, and 182 were approved.
Andrew McClenahan, director of the Florida Department of Children and Families’ Office of Public Benefits Integrity, said the majority of the fraudulent applications raised “red flags” and were stopped because of the “commonality of applications.”
To evade detection, the couple would have the food-stamp cards sent to multiple addresses, including other homes, businesses and churches, Atwater said.
“The efforts that they went to for scamming our workers were extensive,” McClenahan said. “The fact thatwe stopped threefourths of them I would consider a win.”
Florida Division of Public Assistance Fraud director Jack Heacock said the suspects went to Los Primos, where someone bought the cards for partial value before cashing them in for full value during fake transactions.
About 20 people whose identities were stolen were already receiving public benefits when Fenot and Williams allegedly received food-stamp cards in their names.
In those cases, the legitimate assistance recipients were denied benefits for some time, McClenahan said.
The state eventually replaced the benefits for the legitimate customers and placed “additional safeguards on their accounts,” McClenahan said.
Investigators would not say how the suspects stole the identities but said many criminals buy others’ personal information over the Internet.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is handling the investigation into Los Primos. Information on that operation was not available at the press conference.
Authorities tracked Fenot and Williams’ scam from November 2014 through February. The two were arrested at Williams’ mother’s Orlando home Wednesday and Orange County Sheriff’s deputies executed search warrants at the house and Los Primos through the day.
Officials did not address where the couple’s stolen cash went.
The couple face charges of public assistance fraud, organized scheme to defraud, criminal use of personal identification information, grand theft, “aggravated white-collar crime” and racketeering, Atwater’s office said. If convicted, they could face up to 30 years in prison.
Atwater said the crimes hurt not just those in the system, but also everyday taxpaying Floridians.
“Fraud is the silent killer of the Central Florida economy,” Atwater said. “Fraud has driven up the cost of living for our fellow Floridians.”