BOSTON – Two Venezuelan nationals pleaded guilty on June 12, 2026 in federal court in Worcester to using fraudulent Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefit cards to illegally purchase food to stock a local restaurant. This criminal conduct is a part of a larger fraud scheme that used the stolen identities of more than 100 individuals to obtain $440,000 in SNAP benefits from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The stolen identities were used to create 24 “households” in SNAP applications. All of these applications, submitted in the names of over 100 people, were listed as living in two single-family apartments in Providence, R.I.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice