Bad apples among Bangladeshis in the US

Eleven individuals, including store owners and employees who are Bangladeshi immigrants, were attested by the FBI and other US federal investigators   for 12.5 million dollar SNAP fraud (food stamp) in Hamtramck, a suburb within Detroit, Michigan. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), previously known as food stamp, is a federal taxpayer funded programme for the needy and low-income families to help ease their food budget and offer nutritional assistance. The needy and low-income families receive SNAP card, which works like a debit card to purchase prescribed food items which include grocery, baby formula, fruits, vegetables, etc. and they are not allowed to purchase wine, liquor, cigarettes, etc. by using the SNAP fund. SNAP fraud is when SNAP benefits are exchanged for cash. This is called trafficking and it is against the law.

According to the investigators, the eleven individuals were exchanging the benefits for cash and selling items not approved by government assistance programs. In return, the stores added a surcharge or service fee to the recipients' withdrawal of SNAP fund. You can learn more on this from this site: http://www.fbi.gov/detroit/press-releases/2014/law-enforcement-crackdown-on-food-stamp-fraud.

The people of our community are very industrious; but this kind of fraudulent activities of a few unscrupulous businessmen and food stamp recipients would tarnish the reputation of the whole Bangladeshi community. We should strongly condemn and denounce the unlawful and dishonest activities which were committed by these few bad apples of our community.

Nawfal Talukdar
Woodside, NY, USA