One purpose of running a Regional Sales Reports is to enable clear and real-time analysis that compares store performance against other stores. If a report was ever run for stores authorized to accept SNAP benefits for Jefferson County in Alabama, for 2014 to 2017, no one noticed the record high SNAP benefits received by the Big B Food Mart in Birmingham, Alabama. On July 6, 2022, Omar Motley, 42, pleaded guilty to food stamp and tax fraud, stealing nearly $5 million from the federal government as a manager of that Big B Food Mart.
Big B Food Mart was authorized by USDA to accept food stamp benefits allowing lower-income families to purchase healthy food. But Motley manipulated the Supplemental Nutrition Act Program of the millions by unlawfully redeeming EBT SNAP benefits for cash and ineligible items. During this time, authorities said, SNAP benefits redeemed at Big B Food Mart were 52 times greater than similarly sized stores in the area. Maybe someone should be fired here for not noticing those numbers on monthly reports?
In the end, Motely used the system to benefit himself. As the manager of the Big B Food Mart, he was an authorized signatory for the store’s bank account and could operate it on his own. This allowed him to withdraw approximately $3.7 million in cash from the Big B Food Mart’s bank account where the government sent redemption payments.
Motley also pleaded guilty to tax fraud for under-reporting to the IRS his 2015 income received from redeeming SNAP benefits, which allowed for a much larger deduction in the amount of his personal income tax liability. The tax loss to the IRS totals $847,001.00.
Great job to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the IRS for their work in investigating this case.
“Today’s Fraud of the Day” is based on an article, posted by the Miami Herald, on July 8, 2022
Grocery store manager stole nearly $5 million as part of food stamp scheme, feds say
BY JULIA MARNIN A man who managed a Birmingham, Alabama, grocery store pleaded guilty to food stamp and tax fraud charges. A man accused of stealing nearly $5 million from the government while managing a grocery store in Alabama pleaded guilty to a food stamp and tax fraud scheme on July 6.
Prosecutors said he drained the Birmingham store’s bank account of more than $3.7 million by manipulating the national, federally funded food stamp program from 2014 to 2017, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Alabama said in a July 7 news release.
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