Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., and Department of Investigation (DOI) Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata today announced the indictment of eight individuals for conspiring to steal more than $7 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) between April 2023 and September 2025. The alleged fraud impacted thousands of victims, many of whom never received reimbursement for the stolen benefits. They are charged in a New York State Supreme Court indictment with Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree, as well as various counts of Grand Larceny and Identity Theft.[1]

 “SNAP and EBT fraud harms New Yorkers in need of assistance and the New Yorkers whose tax dollars fund these essential programs,” said District Attorney Bragg. “As alleged, this conspiracy created fraudulent merchant processing accounts for fraudulent delis and paid themselves by repeatedly swiping stolen EBT cards at point-of-sale systems associated with those accounts. The defendants allegedly tracked the timing of benefit funds and drained accounts before the legitimate SNAP recipient could buy food and other necessities, eventually stealing more than $7 million. I thank our law enforcement partners at DOI for their work in putting a stop to this fraud.”

DOI Commissioner Nadia I. Shihata said, “These alleged crimes not only resulted in the pilfering of public funds from a critical City-administered food program, but also left vulnerable New Yorkers without essential benefits to purchase groceries. As charged, these defendants allegedly stole information from Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards and opened numerous accounts in the name of real and fictitious delis in order to gain access to merchant accounts and drain the EBT cards of more than $7 million. Those funds were then allegedly used to purchase luxury vehicles and distributed internationally.  In 2025, DOI investigated and issued a public report on the significant threat to public resources this kind of fraud perpetuates, fully supporting the critical move to more secure chip-enabled EBT cards, which New York State will roll out in the first quarter of 2027. I thank the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for their continued partnership to combat fraud and preserve essential public funds that protect New Yorkers from going hungry.”

As alleged in court documents and statements made on the record, the defendants used the names of existing or fictitious delis to obtain merchant processing accounts and point-of-sale (“POS”) systems that could be used to process Electronic Benefits Transfer (“EBT”) transactions. The defendants then used stolen EBT account numbers and personal identification numbers (“PINs”) – largely obtained using card skimmers – to create clones of the EBT cards. They tracked when benefits funds would be loaded onto those compromised accounts, then swiped the cards almost immediately after the funds were loaded, often swiping until the accounts were drained. In several cases, the legitimate owners of the cards attempted to use their cards the day the funds were loaded onto the account, only to find their accounts drained. 

Pictured: Images of Alleged EBT Fraud Operation Seized through Court-Authorized Warrant

BELAL HAUTER, 34, allegedly led the conspiracy by opening or directing coconspirators to open numerous merchant processing accounts in the names of various delis, bodega, or grocery stores, including a deli where multiple defendants worked. The co-conspirators also opened numerous bank accounts to connect to those processing accounts, so EBT transactions went directly to accounts under their control.

GREGORY FABIANI, 46, and ABDULLA AEZAH, 35, helped open the accounts and provided technical back-end support for the use of those accounts and the POS machines.

Others used the POS machines to conduct thousands of transactions.

Finally, MILTON RIOS, 53, and YVETTE RIVERA, 58, also opened additional merchant processing accounts and bank accounts for the conspiracy.

Photographic evidence obtained in this case showed members of the conspiracy operating what was essentially a fraud factory from the back room of a Yonkers deli and from hotels. These included numerous POS systems, strings of receipts from those systems, and dozens of cloned EBT cards.

The stolen funds allegedly were used to purchase multiple luxury vehicles and to send tens of thousands of dollars to Yemen and elsewhere internationally.

Assistant D.A.s Luis Morales, Dennis Dillon, and Kofi Sansculotte (Chief of the Financial Frauds Bureau) are handling the prosecution of the case under the supervision of Assistant D.A. Judy Salwen (Deputy Chief of the Investigation Division, and Executive Assistant D.A. Jodie Kane (Chief of the Investigation Division). Investigative Analyst Ananya Singh, Senior Financial Investigator Lana Wong, and Program Coordinator Will Wang are assisting in the investigation, as are Senior Investigator Jon Munari, Sergeant Louis Capolupo, Lieutenant Daniel Clark-El, under the supervision of Gregory Dunleavy (Deputy Chief Investigator) and Jon Reid (Chief Investigator). Former Assistant D.A. Catherine McCaw, former Forensic Accountant Investigator Lisa Gillen, and former Investigative Analyst Bailey Hanson also provided invaluable assistance. 

The D.A.’s Office thanked Grand Street Settlement and the Office of Councilmember Christopher Marte for their assistance with victim outreach, and the D.A.’s Office’s Elizabeth Artz (Youth and Education Programs Coordinator) and Ely Silvestre (Deputy Director of the Community Partnerships Unit) for coordinating.

At DOI, the investigation was conducted by Special Investigator Jessica Rivas, Acting Deputy Inspector General Alexandra Davie and Acting Inspector General Christopher McKeogh of DOI’s Office of the Inspector General for DSS, under the supervision of Deputy Commissioner/Chief of Investigations Michael P. Mullahy, and Acting First Deputy Commissioner Christopher Ryan.

Recent and Significant Public Integrity Cases

Prosecuting Public Corruption

• Indictment of Ingrid Lewis Martin and associates for bribery conspiracy.
• Indictment of former DOB Commissioner Eric Ulrich for multiple bribe conspiracies:
• Indictment of DOB Supervisor Jake Udeh for bribery conspiracy.
• Indictments of OCME employees for $222k time theft.
• Indictment of ghost gun and fraud conspiracies including multiple NYC Dept. of Homeless Services employees.
• Indictment in straw donor scheme to illegally generate matching funds from NYC Campaign Finance Board during 2021 mayor election.

Protecting the Public Fisc

• Prison sentences and restitution in multi-million dollar NYSIF fraud.
• Guilty pleas in $1.6 million fraud of 421-a tax exemption program.
• Indictments in frauds totaling nearly $1 million targeting NYS funds intended to support students.
• Indictments in $5.7 million COVID-related loan and NYSIF frau, tax fraud, and wage theft.
• Indictment of two for $2.2 million COVID relief fraud.
• Indictment (and certain later guilty pleas) in multimillion dollar, wide-ranging construction fraud scheme including MWBE fraud and other forms of corruption.
• Indictment in $5.7 million construction industry schemes, including COVID-related loan theft and $3 million of wage theft.

For more, visit our White Collar Crime page: https://manhattanda.org/our-work/white-collar-crime/

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[1] The charges contained in the indictment are merely allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. All factual recitations are derived from documents filed in court and statements made on the record in court.