Innocent Gifts | New York | SNAP Fraud

On May 30, 2025, six individuals were charged in connection with a fraud and bribery scheme that generated over $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). If fraudsters get recognition where it is due, this is one of the largest food stamp frauds ever in United States history. But one of these fraudsters, Arlasa Davis, gets a little more credit, and therefore a few more indictments, than the others. Davis was a long time United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) employee and used her privileged access to federal systems and allegedly accessed the very division of the USDA responsible for identifying SNAP fraud. Her actions alone are allegedly responsible for $36 million fraudulent EBT transactions.

Davis used her access to the USDA’s internal systems to steal EBT license numbers. Davis allegedly took photos of handwritten lists of hundreds of valid license numbers, meant only for qualifying stores, and sent them to an intermediary who sold them to co-conspirators, which included Michael Kehoe, Mohamad Nawafleh, Omar Alrawashdeh, Gamal Obaid, and Emad Alrawashdeh. In return, Davis received substantial bribes that were disguised supposedly innocent gifts, such as “birthday gifts” and “flowers.”

Starting in 2019, Kehoe, along with his co-defendants, Nawafleh, Alrawashdeh, Obaid, and Alrawashdeh, submitted approximately 200 fraudulent USDA applications, doctoring application documents, and misappropriating USDA license numbers such as the ones they allegedly bought from Davis, to obtain EBT terminals, which they used at unauthorized stores, including smoke shops and other ineligible businesses. Kehoe orchestrated a network that supplied approximately 160 unauthorized EBT terminals to stores across the New York area to illegally process more than $30 million in EBT transactions.  

Great job by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in this case.

Today’s Fraud of The Day is based on article “USDA Employee Among Six People Charged In Multimillion-Dollar Food Stamp Fraud And Bribery Scheme” published by the Lakewood Scoop on May 30, 2025.

Six individuals from New York have been arrested and charged in connection with a sprawling fraud and bribery scheme that generated over $66 million in unauthorized transactions under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”), also known as food stamps.

According to the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, The defendants are charged with conspiracy to steal government funds and to misappropriate U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) benefits, among other charges.