WICHITA – A Wichita couple who owned and operated an eastside grocery store and a food stamp recipient were sentenced Wednesday for food stamp fraud
47-year-old Muhammad Qadeer Akram, the former owner of Alnoor Grocery Store, 5220 E. 21st in Wichita, was sentenced to 18-months in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud, one count of food stamp fraud and one count of wire fraud.
38-year-old Shama L. Qadeer, Muhammad Qadeer Akram’s wife and who was a co-owner of the grocery store, was sentenced to six months in federal prison and six months home confinement. She pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit food stamp fraud, one count of food stamp fraud and one count of wire fraud.
28-year-old Tequita L. Higgins was sentenced to probation. She pleaded guilty to one count of food stamp fraud.
The Qadeers were also ordered to pay restitution of 450-thousand dollars including 187-thousand in cash that was seized when they were arrested. A money judgment will be entered for the remainder.
In their pleas, Akram and Qadeer admitted to entering into a conspiracy with others to defraud the United States Department of Agriculture by giving cash to recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, more commonly known as food stamps, in exchange for SNAP benefits. The scheme was to give SNAP recipients cash for their benefits, about 50-to-60 cents on the dollar, and keep the rest of the benefits for themselves. They would run SNAP transactions to make it appear SNAP benefits were being used to purchase approved food items at their store. In one instance, on Nov. 5, 2010, they gave a SNAP recipient about 150-dollars in cash in return for SNAP benefits totaling over 308-dollars. In another instance, just over 503-dollars was credited to their account for a SNAP transaction. They gave the SNAP recipient 250-dollars and falsified reports to make it appear the recipient had purchased approved food items. The indictment alleged a total of 450-thousand in similar transactions.
In her plea, Higgins admitted using her Vision card at Alnoor Groceries. She received about 150-dollars in cash in return for a 308-dollar SNAP transaction.