CLEVELAND — The U.S. Secret Service, Ohio Investigative Unit and the USDA’s Food Nutrition Services just completed an 11-month SNAP trafficking investigation in Cleveland.
"There were around 17,000 illegal transactions that took place. Somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000 was recovered,” said Brad Porcella, U.S. Secret Service special agent in charge.
Agents said those benefits were illegally traded for cash, clothes, appliances and other items.
"Exchanging the SNAP benefits for cash is the most common form of trafficking for the SNAP program,” said Porcella.
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Search warrants were executed at a store on in Cleveland and the owner’s residence.
A Cuyahoga County Grand Jury indicted Rup Chhetri on multiple felony counts, including illegal use of SNAP benefits, money laundering, telecommunications fraud and grand theft.
According to studies, SNAP has a fraud rate of less than 1%.
The investigation comes as nearly 42 million Americans are going without food assistance amid a government shutdown.
This article was written by Tracy Carloss for the Scripps News Group in Cleveland.
