A former USDA employee was key to accessing and registering false codes at EBT terminals.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has charged six individuals with running a fraud scheme that funneled over $66 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). The scheme began in 2019 and was perpetuated by former USDA employee Arlasa Davis, who used her access to SNAP filing systems to register around 160 false transaction codes for co-conspirators to use at various Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) terminals.
“Michael Kehoe and his co-conspirators misappropriated tens of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds meant to help low-income families put food on the table,” U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone stated. “This fraud was made possible when USDA employee Arlasa Davis betrayed the public trust by selling confidential government information to the very criminals she was supposed to catch. Their actions undermined a program that vulnerable New Yorkers depend on for basic nutrition.”
“At USDA, we are hyper-focused… on rooting out that waste, fraud, and abuse, and… yesterday was, if not the largest, one of [the] largest stings,” Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins said. “This is a new day, and President Trump promised, as he was traveling across the country over the last few years, that it would not be the government that we know.“
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For Secretary Rollins and USDA officials as they seek to ensure SNAP benefits only reach eligible individuals.
- For President Trump and members of his administration as they work to reduce waste and eliminate fraud in the federal goverment.
Sources: Independent Journal Review, Fox Business
