\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTwo employees at a 7-Eleven store in downtown Pittsburgh are facing charges for allegedly defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) of more than $600,000 over the past four years, according to federal prosecutors. Abdou Jallow, the store manager, and Alicia Mastrantoni, an employee, are accused of exchanging food stamp benefits directly for cash, which customers then used to buy illegal controlled substances, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Investigators allege a long-running schemeProsecutors said the pair tried to conceal the transactions by using fraudulent universal product codes (UPCs) at the register.A review of the store\u2019s records revealed hundreds of individual SNAP transactions exceeding $100 and numerous others over $50\u2014amounts that are inconsistent with typical purchases at a 7-Eleven. Charging documents allege the fraudulent activity totaled $631,608 and had been occurring for at least the last four years. Undercover trooper helped build the caseAs part of the investigation, an undercover state police trooper exchanged SNAP benefits for cash four times.The trooper sold $479 in benefits for $240 in cash with Jallow and once exchanged $100 worth of benefits for $50 in cash with Mastrantoni. Owners likely unaware and repayment is possibleThe criminal complaint also states that the store\u2019s owners, who live in Virginia and are identified only by their initials, likely had no knowledge of the offenses. Food stamp fraud can result in a variety of sentences, often depending on the dollar amount stolen.Prosecutors said full repayment of the stolen funds, which in this case would be close to $600,000, is often part of the penalty.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tPITTSBURGH \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Two employees at a 7-Eleven store in downtown Pittsburgh are facing charges for allegedly defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) of more than $600,000 over the past four years, according to federal prosecutors. <\/p>\n
Abdou Jallow, the store manager, and Alicia Mastrantoni, an employee, are accused of exchanging food stamp benefits directly for cash, which customers then used to buy illegal controlled substances, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n
Investigators allege a long-running scheme<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the pair tried to conceal the transactions by using fraudulent universal product codes (UPCs) at the register.<\/p>\n
A review of the store\u2019s records revealed hundreds of individual SNAP transactions exceeding $100 and numerous others over $50\u2014amounts that are inconsistent with typical purchases at a 7-Eleven. <\/p>\n
Charging documents allege the fraudulent activity totaled $631,608 and had been occurring for at least the last four years. <\/p>\n
Undercover trooper helped build the case<\/p>\n
As part of the investigation, an undercover state police trooper exchanged SNAP benefits for cash four times.<\/p>\n
The trooper sold $479 in benefits for $240 in cash with Jallow and once exchanged $100 worth of benefits for $50 in cash with Mastrantoni. <\/p>\n
Owners likely unaware and repayment is possible<\/p>\n
The criminal complaint also states that the store\u2019s owners, who live in Virginia and are identified only by their initials, likely had no knowledge of the offenses. <\/p>\n
Food stamp fraud can result in a variety of sentences, often depending on the dollar amount stolen.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said full repayment of the stolen funds, which in this case would be close to $600,000, is often part of the penalty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two employees at a 7-Eleven store in downtown Pittsburgh are facing charges for allegedly defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[98615,98616,98617,98623,1707,4623,14704,27007,34513,19611,98619,98620,12120,73,75,74,85825,4610,14467,16890,7617,98618,98621,98622,78],"class_list":["post-227263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-7-eleven-store","tag-abdou-jallow","tag-alicia-mastrantoni","tag-caseas-part","tag-cash","tag-downtown-pittsburgh","tag-employee","tag-federal-prosecutor","tag-food-stamp-fraud","tag-hundred","tag-illegal-controlled-substances","tag-long-running-scheme","tag-owner","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-repayment","tag-snap","tag-snap-benefit","tag-store","tag-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program","tag-u-s-attorney-for-the-western-district-of-pennsylvania","tag-undercover-state-police-trooper","tag-undercover-trooper","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}