The Welfare-Fraud Connection

The Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Corner groceries -- the ones tagged with graffiti and plastered with advertisements like "Chorizo $2.89" and "Eggs 89¢ a dozen" -- dot Chicago's neighborhoods. But some of these stores aren't making their money on sausage and eggs.

More and more of these tiny pantries claim to sell millions in merchandise a year through the food-stamp program. Federal investigators are after dozens of them for ringing up phony sales and illegally handing customers cash -- and pocketing a sizable cut -- all courtesy of U.S. taxpayers.

This fraud puts money in the hands of the poor to buy drugs and might even be helping to fund terrorism. Phyllis Fong, the watchdog for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says anti-terrorism investigators across the country are focused on some of these crooked grocers, who authorities say reap a staggering amount of cash.


In recent years, federal prosecutors in Chicago have charged 22 store owners and employees with ripping off at least $16 million from the food-stamp program, court records show.

You can't have this type of fraud, if you don't have this type of government program.