Cops, feds raid Bay State businesses, charge 32 in EBT card probe

By Richard Weir And Dave Wedge
Thursday, April 19, 2012

Boston police have charged 31 welfare recipients with larceny for “illegally selling” their taxpayer-funded benefits, and a Quincy store owner was ordered held on $100,000 bail on fraud charges after cops and federal agents conducted a statewide sweep to crack down on EBT card abuse.

Dozens of Boston police officers and federal agents raided businesses in Chinatown and across the Bay State this morning as part of the investigation into possible EBT card misuses. The multi-agency effort included agents from the IRS, the U.S. attorney’s office, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the state auditor’s office and the state attorney general’s office.

“There has been an uptick in food stamp fraud,” State Auditor Suzanne Bump said today at Boston Police Headquarters. “It is a trend that is literally sweeping across the nation.”

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said the 31 people will be facing larceny charges for “fraudulent abuse” of their EBT cards. He called the charges part of a “coordinated effort across the Commonwealth” to stem rampant EBT card abuse. Boston police said the 31 people are accused of fraudulently using their cards at stores across the city to illegally obtain cash. Most of the people charged are EBT card holders, and many have long criminal histories, police said. No Boston store owners have been charged, but the investigation is open, Davis said.

In Quincy, investigators from the AG’s office and the U.S. Department of Agriculture raided a Quincy gas station and convenience store.
A Quincy judge ordered Pat Lu, the owner of Lotto Luck Pats Minimarket, held on $100,000 cash bail after prosecutor called him a “serious flight risk” following his arrest on charges that he bilked the state and federal government out of $700,000 in a EBT card scam.

“It was brazen. The store became a hub for food stamp fraud,” assistant attorney general Michael Pine said, adding that Lu’s store, Pat’s Minimart, attracted customers from Boston, Braintree, Weymouth and “as far away as Malden” who came there to cash in on the lucrative scheme.

According to Pine, customers would swipe their cards pretending to purchase $200 in groceries. They would get back $100 in cash and the store would pocket $100.

“The going rate.... was 50 cents on the dollar,” Pine.

Lu’s defense attorney, Robert Tutino, described Lu as a hardworking Vietnamese immigrant and divorced father of three young children. He suggested Lu was not in the store during the illegal transactions.

“He knew the trafficking in food stamps was wrong but he did it anyway,” Pine said.

In Chinatown, officers investigated businesses including the Cmart Supermarket at 690 Washington St., the Banh Mi New Saigon Sandwich shop at 696 Washington St. and the Mei Sum Vietnamese Bakery on Beach Street. Efforts to reach the owners of those businesses for comment were unsuccessful.

Police in uniform and plainclothes blocked the doors of Cmart, preventing shoppers from going inside and creating a large crowd of onlookers on Knapp Street at the rear entrance.

“Shoppers are surprised to see this many cops in Chinatown, you rarely see this in the morning,” said Courtney Ho-Ha, executive director of Chinatown Main Street.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the raids were the culmination of a 14-month probe. The probes come on the heels of a similar bust of a store on Blue Hill Avenue, as well as raids in Lynn that found store owners taking EBT cards in an alleged cash-for-crack exchange.

“It’s something that’s always being looked at,” Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce said. “It’s a benefit that people need and it shouldn’t be abused.”
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Cops, feds raid Bay State businesses, charge 32 in EBT card probe - BostonHerald.com