To: tntpal who wrote (49642 ) 12/19/2025 3:17:19 PM From: tntpal Respond to of 49739 Yet more Fraud Scandals - in Massachusetts in $7 Million SNAP Scam - Allegedly Raked In $480,000 Per Month on Taxpayer Dime Dec. 18, 2025 Antonio Bonheur, 74, and Saul Alisme, 21 (Credit: DOJ)Federal prosecutors unsealed a major fraud indictment Wednesday, charging two Haitian migrants with operating a $7 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit trafficking scheme out of two small retail storefronts in Boston’s Mattapan neighborhood. According to a newly filed federal criminal complaint , Antonio Bonheur, 74, and Saul Alisme, 21, are each charged with one count of SNAP fraud for trafficking millions of dollars in SNAP (food stamp) benefits, turning a program meant to feed struggling families into a cash machine for fraudsters. The USDA Office of Inspector General, working alongside the FBI, charged Antonio Bonheur, owner of Jesula Variety Store , and Saul Alisme, owner of Saul Mache Mixe Store , with food stamp fraud under federal law. Investigators allege that Bonheur’s store, a so-called “medium grocery store” that is only about 150 square feet and lacks shopping carts, baskets, scanners, refrigerators, meat, dairy, or produce, somehow processed over $6.9 million in SNAP transactions between 2021 and 2025. Screenshot ScreenshotTo put that in perspective:Comparable grocery stores in the same ZIP code average $16,000 per month in SNAP redemptions Bonheur’s store averaged nearly $300,000 per month More than 70% of all transactions exceeded $150, a statistical impossibility for a shop with almost no food inventory Investigators bluntly stated there was “no means by which hundreds of thousands of dollars in SNAP-eligible foods” could have been legitimately sold from the location. On multiple days, investigators observed customers spending hundreds of dollars per transaction, some exceeding $700, and then walking out with empty hands or a single small plastic bag. On May 6, 2025 alone, dozens of transactions over $100 were recorded. Not a single customer left with groceries consistent with the amounts charged. That’s because, according to the affidavit, SNAP benefits were allegedly being exchanged for cash, liquor, and other prohibited items, a textbook example of welfare trafficking. Even more outrageous: Bonheur allegedly applied for SNAP benefits for himself, claiming he had zero income, despite owning a business raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars per month in SNAP redemptions.