Feds: Des Moines grocer defrauded food aid programs out of hundred of thousands of dollars
Federal investigators say a Des Moines ethnic store owner defrauded food assistance programs out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Authorities now want to seize three properties they say he purchased with the proceeds.
Osman Jama, owner of MidCity Halal Food Market, became the focus of an FBI fraud investigation after the Iowa Department of Public Health in 2017 flagged the store’s use of federal food assistance programs as suspicious because of abnormally high transactions.
Among other tactics, Jama and his staff would scan baby formula and other products in place of items not eligible for food programs designed to assist low-income families, according to a federal forfeiture claim filed last week in federal court.
The store at 2720 Douglas Ave. reaped $1,928,880 more in program benefits during a four-year period that ended in March than the average-sized medium grocery vendor in the area, the forfeiture petition says.
Read more: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2019/05/01/des-moines-crime-iowa-ia-midcity-halal-food-market-scammed-federal-food-investigators-osman-jama/3643683002/