Four men, most of them owners of South Florida convenience stores, have been accused of a multi-million-dollar, years-long scheme to defraud the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, by exchanging food assistance benefits for cash, prosecutors said.
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Rajaie Ahmad Ali, 63, of Miramar; Sami Jamhour, 43, of Hollywood; Cristian Giovanni Amaro, 27, of Miami; and Adel Amro, 23, of Fort Myers, are accused of conspiring to traffic SNAP benefits through authorized stores in Miami-Dade and Broward counties from 2019 to May of this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Florida, said Thursday.
“Food stamps exist to help families put food on the table, not to make criminals rich,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones said. “As alleged, these defendants turned a neighborhood grocery store into a cash-for-food-stamps operation, trafficking more than $19 million in taxpayer-funded benefits for their own profit.”
Ali owned Brown Sugar, Jamhour owned Kwik Stop, and Amaro owned Quickie Mini Market, which are all stores authorized to accept SNAP benefits.
According to prosecutors, Ali and Amaro provided their stores’ SNAP point-of-sale (POS) terminals for use at Kwik Stop, despite rules that prohibit retailers from sharing terminals.
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Amro is accused of recruiting SNAP recipients who were willing to exchange their benefits for cash, prosecutors said.
Employees processed the fraudulent transactions through the POS terminals and charged recipients’ SNAP transfer cards for inflated amounts and then paid the recipients half of the value in cash; then the retailers kept the remaining funds for profit, prosecutors said.
“Government programs like SNAP support American families in need of assistance, ensuring that our citizens do not go hungry,” said FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles. “For almost seven years, these fraudsters allegedly targeted SNAP for illicit gains, stealing millions of dollars from Americans with no remorse to the harm they inflicted upon South Florida communities.”
All four men face money laundering charges and conspiracy to commit SNAP trafficking. If convicted, Ali faces the longest prison sentence of up to 65 years.
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