Eight people were indicted in Manhattan on Thursday, accused of stealing more than $7 million in food stamp benefits from thousands of low-income New Yorkers and spending the money on luxury vehicles, while also sending tens of thousands of dollars abroad, including to Yemen.
The group used the names of delis, both existing and fictitious, to open merchant processing accounts and purchase point-of-sale machines, prosecutors said. The accounts allowed them to process Electronic Benefits Transfer, or E.B.T., cards, according to prosecutors.
Then, prosecutors said, the group was able to use stolen information linked to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, better known as SNAP, or food stamps, to create clones of the E.B.T. cards.
The group would track when funds were to be deposited into the accounts, and withdraw the money before the legitimate card holders could purchase food or other necessities, according to prosecutors.
Between April 2023 and September 2025, the point-of-sale machines conducted thousands of transactions, and most of the victims never received reimbursement for the stolen benefits, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
The group was running a “fraud factory from the back room of a Yonkers deli and hotels,” prosecutors said during the arraignment in Manhattan State Supreme Court on Thursday.
Three members of the group, Abdulla Aezah, Belal Hauter and Gregory Fabiani, were arraigned on Thursday and charged with multiple counts, including conspiracy, grand larceny and identity theft. The men pleaded not guilty and were held in custody.
“SNAP and E.B.T. fraud harms New Yorkers in need of assistance and the New Yorkers whose tax dollars fund these essential programs,” said Alvin L. Bragg, the district attorney.
The scheme described by prosecutors on Thursday is similar to other operations that have left some of the state’s most vulnerable residents without the funds they need to buy food and other necessities. Early this year, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state would upgrade the cards to include encrypted chip-and-pin technology, rather than a magnetic strip, to curb similar frauds.
The problem is not confined to New York. While the full extent of the fraud is unknown, across the country, states reported $320 million in stolen benefits between October 2022 and December 2024, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
The charges come as eligibility to qualify for food stamps continues to tighten under President Trump’s keystone policy bill, the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act. About 26,500 New Yorkers lost benefits under the new work requirement rules, Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office said, in an Oct. 1 press release.
Mr. Trump has previously said a goal of the tighter eligibility requirements, which were signed into law in 2025, is to cut back on fraud. The Federal Government spends about $95 billion on benefits annually.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Hauter was the ringleader, directing others to open merchant processing accounts in the names of various delis, bodegas and grocery stores. Some were delis where members of the group actually worked, prosecutors said.
The other two men helped open the accounts, and provided technical, back-end support for the point-of-sale machines, prosecutors said. Two other defendants who were arrested but not arraigned on Thursday, Milton Rios and Yvette Rivera, had also opened additional merchant processing accounts and bank accounts, prosecutors said.
To facilitate their scheme, prosecutors said, the group had opened bank accounts where they received the stolen E.B.T. funds.
In court, lawyers for Mr. Fabiani and Mr. Aezah argued to the judge that their clients had not been as involved in the scheme as Mr. Hauter. Peter Tilem, who represented Mr. Fabiani, said that his client operated his card-processing businesses legally.
As the hearing proceeded, several women in the gallery could be heard sobbing.
The post 8 Accused of Stealing Millions in Food Stamp Benefits From New Yorkers appeared first on New York Times.
