He Spent $1.5 Million in Food Stamps
He used electronic benefit transfer cards to buy massive amounts of Pepsi.
In a document filed last September in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the office of the U.S. attorney for that district described a shopping trip that David Quinones made to a store referred to as "Retailer A" -- where local law enforcement officers had him under surveillance.
"Defendant purchased, among other items, approximately 20 cases of Pepsi with three unique EBT cards," said this statement. "Later that day, defendant drove to a different Retailer A location in Calumet City, Illinois. Defendant purchased among other items, approximately 20 cases of Pepsi for $211.32, using three unique EBT cards."
"After purchasing the items," said the statement, "defendant transported them to a gas station in Chicago to resell them for profit. ... On February 6, 2020, LEOs (law enforcement officers) again established surveillance at the Evergreen Park Store (of Retailer A). At approximately 7:00 p.m., defendant purchased 139 cases of soda using three EBT cards."
"Defendant also used EBT cards at a second retailer (Retailer B), opening multiple accounts in his own name to make the store purchases," said the statement.
On Feb. 4 of this year, Quinones signed an agreement pleading guilty to wire fraud in this case.
"QUINONES paid SNAP recipients, in cash and otherwise, for access to their EBT cards and associated PINs, so that he could use the EBT cards to fraudulently obtain items using their SNAP benefits," said the plea agreement. "QUINONES then used the EBT cards and associated PINs, fraudulently representing himself to be the authorized user, and to make purchases of items at Retailer A and Retailer B. The items purchased were not provided to the SNAP recipients and instead QUINONES then sold some of the items, keeping the proceeds for himself, and kept some of the items for his own benefit."
"Through his fraudulent use of EBT cards, QUINONES caused the USDA to reimburse Retailer A and Retailer B for thousands of fraudulent SNAP transactions using over 1,200 EBT cards that were assigned to in excess of five SNAP recipients," said the statement.
How much did this fraudulent use of the food stamp program cost American taxpayers?
"In total," said the plea agreement, "QUINONES caused the USDA to pay out approximately $1,554,804 in SNAP benefits as a result of his fraudulent SNAP transactions."
In Calumet City, Illinois, one of the locations where Quinones fraudulently used EBT cards, the average home value is $151,309, according to Zillow. That means the $1,554,804 in fraudulent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program transactions he engaged in would have been enough to buy 10 homes in the area.
This month, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney's office, a federal district judge sentenced Quinones to four years and four months in prison for this fraud. He also "ordered him to pay $1,554,804 in restitution to the government."
How much fraud and theft occurs each year in the food stamp program? The data is limited.
The Government Accountability Office posted a page on its website in September that carried this headline: "Stolen SNAP Benefits Cost Beneficiaries Millions." The page linked to a GAO report that was published in September.
The Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service, the report said, "has limited information on the extent of SNAP EBT theft. According to FNS, there is no requirement for state SNAP agencies to report data on stolen benefits, except for the statutorily required period of October 1, 2022, through December 20, 2024.
"State SNAP agencies," it said, "replaced over $320 million in stolen benefits with federal funds for nearly 679,000 households in 52 states during that period. (The GAO says it refers to "the District of Columbia, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands as 'states.'") However, those data do not represent all SNAP benefit theft. Rather, the data reflect unauthorized transactions for which recipients filed claims that were subsequently approved. Some recipients who experienced benefit theft may not have known to file claims and, as a result, may not have done so."
Nor is it likely to cover those cases where someone buys access to someone else's EBT card and uses it to make a profit.
As this column has noted before, those who benefit from SNAP are not equally distributed across the nation. New Mexico, according to the Department of Agriculture, had the highest percentage of its population -- 21.2% -- receiving SNAP benefits in 2024.
The District of Columbia was second with 19.6%; Louisiana was third with 18.4%; Oregon was fourth with 17.7%; Oklahoma was fifth with 16.8%; West Virginia was sixth with 15.7%; Massachusetts was seventh with 15.6%; Nevada was eighth with 15.5%; Pennsylvania was ninth with 15.3%; and Illinois was 10th with 15.2%.
At the other end of the food stamp spectrum was Utah, where only 4.8% of the population was receiving SNAP benefits. Wyoming, at 4.9%, had the second-lowest percentage of its population on food stamps. New Hampshire had the third-lowest with 5.5%; North Dakota had the fourth-lowest with 6.1%; Kansas had the fifth-lowest with 6.3%; Idaho had the sixth-lowest with 6.5%; Montana had the seventh-lowest with 7.2%; Nebraska had the eighth-lowest with 7.7%; Arkansas and Minnesota were tied for ninth with 7.8%; and Iowa was 10th with 8%.
In fiscal 2024, according to the Department of Agriculture, the "average monthly participation" in receiving SNAP benefits was 41.7 million people. During that year, the government spent $99.788 billion on the program.
Congress does not just need to eliminate fraud from this program, it needs to phase out the program itself -- and return America to the self-sufficient culture we had before former President Lyndon Johnson established this program by signing the Food Stamp Act of 1964.
To find out more about Terence P. Jeffrey and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.
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