Business-owner sentenced in $3.6M fraud case
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The John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse (center) is the main courthouse for the U.S. District Court in Boston.
A Worcester woman has been sentenced in connection to a $3.6 million food stamp fraud scheme that she operated out of her convenience store.
Vida Ofori Causey, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman to one year and one day in prison, three years of supervised release and ordered to forfeit $3,512,906 to the government, according to a release from the Office of United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. In December 2015, Causey pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit SNAP benefits fraud, one count of SNAP fraud, and one count of money laundering.
Causey was the owner and operator of J&W Aseda Plaza, a convenience store on Main Street in Worcester. From April 2010 to October 2014, Causey conspired with others to commit SNAP fraud by purchasing SNAP benefits from recipients rather than exchanging them for food, according to the release. Causey purchased the benefits at a discounted value of approximately fifty cents for every SNAP dollar and then had the USDA electronically deposit the money into a bank account she controlled the full face value of the SNAP benefits.
During the course of the four-year conspiracy, Causey defrauded the USDA of approximately $3,638,900 in SNAP funds.
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