Store owner sentenced to nearly 3 years for food stamp fraud

PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia store owner was sentenced Tuesday to 30 months in prison for defrauding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formally known as food stamps. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the scam.

Farhan Ali Abu Siam, 42, pleaded guilty to conspiring to traffic SNAP benefits and commit wire fraud; wire fraud; and aiding and abetting trafficking in SNAP benefits.

The defendant owned and operated S&S Farmer’s Market, a now defunct retail grocery store, which was located at 2722 Germantown Ave. in Philadelphia.  At his guilty plea hearing, the defendant admitted that he knowingly trafficked in SNAP benefits and directed his employees to traffic in SNAP benefits by purchasing them from customers of S&S, which is illegal.  The defendant admitted that within a 15-month period, he was responsible for a program loss of $1,390,482.

In addition to the prison term, Senior U.S. District Court Judge John R. Padova ordered restitution of $1,390,482 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which administers the program; three years of supervised release to follow imprisonment; and directed that the defendant not own or operate any company that accepts SNAP benefits while on supervised release.

The case was investigated by the USDA Office of Inspector General and HSI.  It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mary E. Crawley.