Local Food Stamp Fraud Investigation Suggests Nationwide Need For Reform

A food stamp fraud investigation targeting Butler County, Ohio, which received shocking increases in food assistance dollars, suggests that nationwide reform is badly needed.

From July 2012 to June 2013, the food stamp fraud investigation has led to the arrest of 116 people, as well as another 100 caught from July 2013 to December 2013. Throughout the total length of the operation, the apprehensions have saved the taxpayers roughly $5.2 million since July 2012. It was headed up by two Butler County Sheriff’s office detectives aided by the Secret Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as other state and local agencies.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” Sgt. Jason Rosser, a Butler County Sheriff said.

Compounding the problem of food stamp fraud has been the economic recovery that never was and a common symptom of nationwide economic distress — record high drug abuse. A record 47 million Americans were on food stamps as of 2013, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture says that food stamp fraud costs the taxpayers $750 million each year.

In Butler Bounty, Sheriff Richard K. Jones says heroin has become a real problem.

The Butler County food stamp fraud investigation uncovered a common occurrence found in other investigations among drug addicts, who are trading their SNAP cards for cash to buy heroin (or, other drugs).

“They didn’t want to eat, they wanted caps of heroin,” Rosser said.

Rosser found much the same scam previously reported by PeoplesPunditDaily.com, which consists of people selling their SNAP assistance to others for 50 cents on the dollar.

“Someone sees a person in a store pushing a cart load of groceries and goes up and says, ‘Give me $100 for this card. It has $200 on it,’ ” Rosser said. That cash, he said, is then used to buy drugs or items not permitted with assistance funds.

The investigation also uncovered another all-to-common occurrence, where retailers purchase SNAP cards or allow SNAP cardholders to purchase items that are not unauthorized under the program, even items such as alcohol and cigarettes.

Sometimes, the store owner uses the SNAP benefits to purchase items from another location, which they then sell at their own establishment. In the investigation, one Fairfield gas station owner purchased a SNAP card from a person deemed in need of assistance, proceeded to enter another grocery store where they used it to purchases cases of beverages. They were sold at his gas station, Rosser said.

“You could see the people who sold the card helping him load the stuff in the back of the car,” Rosser said.

Of the 216 violators, 124 have been given administrative waivers, which amounts to little more than being barred from receiving SNAP benefits for a year. Still, some offenders have been sentenced already or have been charged with a fifth-degree felony. Out of the 216 offenders, just 51 have received a lifetime ban from the SNAP assistance program as a result of their conviction.

The program, which is one of the first of its kind in the state, was initiated by Sheriff Richard Jones and county Commissioner Don Dixon.

“There are others out there copying our program,” Jones said, adding the investigation is having an impact. The saddest aspect, however, is the potential harm to those truly in need of assistance.

“These people are taking it away from those who really need it,” Jones said. “If you are using these cards for fraud, you will end up in my jail.”

Dixon rightfully touts how a crime that “was not secret” has been spotlighted by the investigation.

“It was common knowledge what was going on, but everybody was kind of walking around it. This is doing something about it,” said Commissioner Dixon. “You know it’s just not fair to the people out there who work hard to pay the bills, when they see people cheating the system while they do without.”

The initiative, which is costing just $136,000, is well worth its own weight. The number represents the total contract between Butler County Job and Family Services, the county prosecutor and the Butler County Sheriff’s office.

“We are very pleased with the success,” said Jerome Kearns, job and family services director. “It has been a huge return on our investment.”

Kearns also said the investigation has targeted an area where they didn’t have the resources to operate in, but because word is spreading on the streets it is compounding the effectiveness of the program.

“I was on Heaton Avenue the other day a woman yelled out ‘there’s the food stamp guy’,” he said.

In total, roughly $6.6 million is directed monthly to Butler County to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly referred to as either food stamps or SNAP. Considering that in the past 18 months, alone, $5.25 million has been saved by the efforts of the Butler County Sheriff’s Office, the policy could serve as a nationwide template for an ever-growing national problem.