Sin Y Sit, owner of Mei A. Asian Grocery in McKeesport, Pennsylvania, was sentenced Thursday (29th) to 27 months in prison after completing two years of supervision for three counts of conspiracy, food stamp benefit fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Sin Y Sit was sentenced by a Pennsylvania federal court to 27 months in prison and two years of supervision after completing his sentence.
The government benefits, known as “food stamps” by the Chinese, are known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and cannot be redeemed for cash or used for discretionary purposes. It is not redeemable for cash and cannot be used to purchase any items at will, but only for low-income families to purchase essential food items such as food and fish. However, the merchants involved in the case bought the “food stamps” at low prices and then cashed them out to the government for the full amount, earning the difference.
According to court documents, from approximately March 2014 until May 2017, Xue, 46, and his wife, Qiao Jiang, allowed customers to illegally exchange food stamps for cash or other groceries, such as cigarettes, by purchasing food stamps at a low price of 50 cents per dollar of food stamps in cash. The fraud amounted to $250,000 to $550,000 during the conspiracy.
Federal prosecutor Scott W. Brady said the defendants also conducted financial transactions involving cash withdrawals, meaning they cashed out the full amount of those proceeds to the USDA, using the food stamps as a moneymaker to buy more commodities.
The USDA Office of Inspector General, Homeland Security Investigations and the IRS Criminal Investigations Bureau investigated the matter and ultimately brought charges against Xue. Xue pleaded guilty last October.
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